Deepa Mohanan Hunger Strike: Kerala government has promised to fulfill the demands of Dalit Ph.D. candidate Deepa Mohanan after almost a decade since she started protesting.
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The Ph.D. scholar from Kottayam's Mahatama Gandhi University has been on a hunger strike since October 29 this year. She has alleged that she was not able to complete her degree because of the caste discrimination directed towards her by university officials. Her fight seems to have come to an end on Saturday as the Higher Education Minister of Kerala R Bindu took to her Facebook account and directed the university to meet all of Mohanan's demands at the earliest.
Mohanan has asked for access to resources needed to complete her PhD degree. She wants a change in her research guide and has demanded the removal of the director of the International and Inter University Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (IIUCNN) Nandakumar Kalarickal. Mohanan has alleged the director to be the major roadblock in her research work.
The university had agreed to fulfill all the demands of Mohanan on November 1 but they refused to remove the director from his post. That is why she continued her protest. The Kerala minister on Saturday has asked the university to remove the director at the earliest.
R Bindu wrote, "The government has asked the university why it has not conducted an inquiry and removed the professor who faces allegations. We have asked for an explanation, whether there is any technical problem in removing the professor and if yes, they are asked to produce documents on the same."
She said that the government along with her personally are worried about Mohanan's health. The minister wrote in her post that if the university fails to remove the director at the earliest, the state government will direct it to do so.
According to Deepa Mohanan, she would have finished her PhD by 2015, but it was delayed because she was allegedly not provided the materials required for her research and not allowed to use university facilities.
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