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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 9:59:04 pm

Legal Weapon

The death of Sahil Wakode at IIT Bombay is undoubtedly a tragic incident. It also raises a difficult question that should not be lost amid the understandable anger on campus: when does a genuine allegation of caste discrimination become a criminal charge, and what happens when the extraordinary force of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is invoked before the facts have been established? Wakode, a second-year student, died by suicide last week, hours after he was caught using a mobile...

Legal Weapon

The death of Sahil Wakode at IIT Bombay is undoubtedly a tragic incident. It also raises a difficult question that should not be lost amid the understandable anger on campus: when does a genuine allegation of caste discrimination become a criminal charge, and what happens when the extraordinary force of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is invoked before the facts have been established? Wakode, a second-year student, died by suicide last week, hours after he was caught using a mobile phone during an examination. IIT Bombay says he had uploaded the question paper to ChatGPT, but that no disciplinary proceedings had been initiated against him. He was counselled and assured that the incident would not damage his academic career. His parents have subsequently alleged that Wakode had been subjected to caste-based harassment for several months and named Professor Suryanarayana Doolla in an FIR alleging abetment to suicide, along with provisions of the SC/ST Act. The institute has denied that any complaint of caste discrimination was made by Wakode during his tenure. Its SC/ST cell has also said it received no such complaint. The investigation has now been transferred to the Crime Branch. The SC/ST Act exists because caste oppression is real, and victims require a law capable of confronting it. But precisely because the law is stringent, its invocation cannot become a substitute for evidence. The Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasised that the statutory ingredients of an offence must actually be made out. The court has also held that where a complaint does not prima facie disclose an offence under the Act, its stringent restrictions on pre-arrest bail do not automatically apply. Teachers must be able to enforce examination rules without fearing that every disciplinary confrontation could acquire a caste dimension. The tendency to turn a student’s caste into the explanation for every institutional conflict involving an SC/ST student is disturbing and must be resisted. If every disciplinary action involving a reserved-category student is presumed to be caste discrimination, the distinction between discrimination and ordinary institutional accountability begins to disappear. Equally, an institute cannot hide behind procedure if evidence eventually establishes discrimination or harassment. If Professor Doolla did indeed use casteist language, threatened Wakode or treated him differently because of his caste, those allegations must be investigated fully and dealt with under the law. But the answer cannot be to criminalise the invigilator first and investigate later. IIT Bombay now has two obligations: establish, without prejudice, what happened in those crucial hours and examine the broader pressures facing its students. The police must establish whether the allegations under the SC/ST Act have factual and legal substance. The institute must ensure that teachers can enforce academic integrity while students have credible avenues to report genuine discrimination. The tragedy demands accountability. It does not demand a predetermined culprit.

Sources of generation and types of waste

Writer: Dr. Sanjay Joshi
Dr. Sanjay Joshi
Sep 21, 2024
2 min read

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Sources of generation and types of waste

Today, let us understand different types of wastes and how to get rid over of it.

Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) or E-Waste

This kind of waste comprises end-of-life electrical and electronics equipment and and gadgets which have lost there usefulness. These include a variety of home appliances such as toasters, mixers, refrigerators, electrical fixtures, bulbs and tube lights, heaters, fans, remote controls, television remotes, electrical cords, lamps, smart lights, night lights, Fitbit, smart watches, blood pressure monitors, diabetic testing equipment etc. These also include communications and information technology devices like cell phones, smartphones, desktop computers, computer monitors, laptops, circuit boards, hard drives etc. Then there are copiers/printers, it servers and server racks, cords and cables, wifi dongles, power strips, power supplies, uninterrupted power supplies (ups systems), power distribution systems (PDU’s).

The list is unending! The medical facilities also generate the e-waste in the form of dialysis machines, imaging equipment, autoclave, defibrillator etc.


Chemical Waste

Chemical waste comprises all the waste consisting of a chemical substance. Sources include industry, farms, commercial enterprises, and even housing. Cleaners, insecticide sprays, and coolants are examples of household chemical waste. If the waste is not recycled properly, both industrial and household batteries can be harmful. TV tubes, computers, and electrical appliance components contain chemicals that can cause chemical contamination. Lead and mercury from electronic components can seep into the soil and increase its toxicity in the soil and water.


Bio-Medical Waste

This is a kind of waste generated in pathology labs, diagnostic centers, small and large hospitals, clinics, dental clinics, blood donation camps, veterinary colleges and hospitals, research laboratories in the pharmaceutical industries etc. Schools and colleges are also potential sources of generation of bio medical waste. This kind of waste is also generated in the houses where the patient is bed ridden and is getting treatment at home. Hospital waste includes cotton swabs soaked in patient’s blood or other body fluids, discarded wound bandages and dressing materials, needles and syringes, plastic tubing, catheters, blades, scalpels, human organs and tissues removed during surgery, placenta and other tissue removed during delivery of a baby, aborted fetuses.


Construction; Demolition waste

In India, there is a frenzy of construction activities for variety of ‘developmental projects’. Hundreds and thousands of kilometers of roads are constructed, huge tunnels and underpasses are created, taller and taller buildings are being constructed for commercial and residential purposes and so on and so forth.

For all such activities, lot of excavation is done which generates this type of waste in huge volumes. Old, dilapidated buildings are demolished , to be replaced by very tall, multistoried buildings as a part of redevelopment plan! During all such activities, lot of cement and concrete debris, bricks, stones, sand, glass, wood, large packaging cabinets, and plastic building materials comprise construction and demolition waste.

This waste, if not managed properly and systematically, ends up along the highways and even into the waterbodies causing severe damage to the environment.


Radioactive waste

This is a byproduct of nuclear reactors, fuel processing plants, hospitals and research facilities. Radioactive waste is also generated while decommissioning and dismantling nuclear reactors and other nuclear facilities.

(The writer is an environment expert. Views personal.)

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