'Sheddu', the side-effect of quota

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New Delhi: The reservation debate may more or less be over, but it's side-effects are beginning to be seen across colleges and universities in the country.

Schedule Caste students are being addressed with a new slang - 'sheddu' and they are routinely abused by their upper caste colleagues. The caste lines have become stronger than ever.

Shy Jeetendra Kumar Meena left his hometown Dausa in Rajasthan to live his big city dream at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi.

However, for this young dalit, life has become a nightmare. He says he's abused almost every day.

In this nerve centre of anti-reservation protests, no upper caste wants to be Jeetendra's friend. He says no one even talks to him.

And now he has to vacate his room, because hostel number one of AIIMS, where he stays is mainly upper caste dominated.

"They ask me to leave this place and go to hostel number three or four. That is your place the upper caste students tell me," says he.

Jeetendra has complained, but says no one is listening. And since the key to his future lies here, he stays on - despite the humiliation.

For dalit students like Jeetandra, hard as they might try, there's no escaping their identity on campus.

The merit list announces it and so do introductions during the ragging sessions. The result - ghettos in hostels.

Records show that of the 45 SC/ST students who've been at AIIMS, this past year, 34 are living in clusters.

Says senior resident and general category student, Dr Kaushal, "Maybe it's just due to the inferiority complex that they want to live together."

It's not just a question of residence. Dalit students are seldom elected to union posts and of late there are CDs being circulated which show some students burning Ambedkar's books.

Professor of Surgery at AIIMS, Dr Lakhiram Murmu, is a tribal. He says the caste divide existed even when he was a student here, but post the reservation ruckus, more cases are being reported.

Says he, "The prejudice is very difficult to get rid of, but as far as the discrimination goes, that can be limited and that has been limited by the Constitution of India."

And it's not just AIIMS. In centres of excellence across the country, caste prejudice is a reality.

Official policy may try and create equal opportunities by reserving seats but social attitudes remain fixed, untouched by official declarations. Even in a world of young highly educated achievers, a casteless society is a distant dream.

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