IIT Kharagpur Scraps Veg-Non-Veg Segregated Seating in Hostels

• IIT Kharagpur withdraws notice that segregated hostel dining hall seating based on vegetarian and non-vegetarian preferences.
• Director Suman Chakraborty ordered removal of signage, emphasizing segregation should only occur during food preparation and distribution, not seating.
• The move follows protests by boarders and alumni, reinforcing that academic institutions should not divide students over food choices.

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur has withdrawn a notice that made segregation in seating arrangement in the dining hall of various hostels on the basis of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food habits and choice, an official said.

Suggesting that the directive regarding segregation of such seating arrangements at B R Ambedkar Hall had been made without the knowledge of the superior authority, the director of the institute, Suman Chakraborty, informed PTI on Friday, "The moment he learnt about the decision, it was canceled upon immediate consultation with others in the higher authority of the institute".

"There should not be any such signage to segregate students assembled at the dining hall based on their culinary choice. We have ordered that such signage be removed in whichever dining hall it remains with immediate effect", he said.

Chakraborty further said an academic institution should not impose such an order of segregation based on the food preferences of an individual. On August 16, boarders of the B R Ambedkar Hall of Residence were instructed in a notice to occupy seats according to separately marked spaces for vegetarian and non-vegetarian food.

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This caused a flutter among boarders who condemned the action, and as the news spread, the alumni rallied in support of boarders who condemned such segregation on the grounds that it nurtured division.

On September 8, the institute, in a new notice to all the wardens of halls, instructed that any segregation of mess food into vegetarian, non-vegetarian, Jain, and other categories should be carried out only at the levels of preparation and distribution. "There should not be any such segregation for sitting in the dining hall", the notice instructed.

The August 16 decision to install signage on tables at Ambedkar Hall came after grievances by a section of the vegetarian boarders that eaters of non-vegetarian food at the same place were inconveniencing them with the presence of cooked chicken, fish, mutton, and called for segregating vegetarian and non-vegetarians at the dining hall.

The notice, which comes following the incidents at Ambedkar Hall, will be put into effect in other hostel mess halls from today itself in case similar practice of segregation was prevalent there. On principle, there cannot and should not be such segregation at all, the director averred.