The Centre has notified fresh regulations mandating all higher education institutions (HEIs) to establish equity mechanisms to prevent caste-based discrimination and promote inclusion on campuses, officials said on Thursday.
The University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, require universities and colleges to set up Equal Opportunity Centres and Equity Committees to address complaints, provide counselling and ensure representation of disadvantaged groups.
Under the rules, Equity Committees must include members from the Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, persons with disabilities and women, with a tenure of two years. Special invitees will serve for one year.
The regulations were issued following directions from the Supreme Court, which had asked the UGC to frame new rules while hearing a petition filed by the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi, questioning the implementation of the 2012 UGC regulations.
A draft of the regulations had been placed in the public domain for feedback in February last year.
According to the notification, “Every HEI shall establish an Equal Opportunity Centre to oversee the effective implementation of policies and programmes for disadvantaged groups; to provide guidance and counselling regarding academic, financial, social and other matters; and to enhance the diversity within the campus.”
It further stated, “Provided that if a college does not have at least five faculty members to establish the Equal Opportunity Centre, the functions of the centre of the college shall be performed by the Equal Opportunity Centre of the university to which the college is affiliated.”
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The Centre is expected to coordinate with civil society, local media, police, district administrations, non-government organisations, faculty members, staff and parents to fulfil the objectives of the regulations.
The notification added, “The Equal Opportunity Centre shall coordinate with the District Legal Services Authority and the State Legal Services Authority concerned to achieve the objectives of these regulations in general and to provide legal aid in deserving cases.”
It also specified that “The Executive Council or the Governing Body or the Management Committee of the Higher Education Institution, as the case may be, shall nominate a regular professor or a senior faculty member who has an innate interest in the welfare of disadvantaged social groups as Coordinator of the centre.”
Each Equal Opportunity Centre will function through an Equity Committee constituted by the head of the institution to inquire into complaints of discrimination and oversee its work.
The regulations additionally mandate the formation of ‘Equity Squads’ on campuses. “Every HEI shall also constitute a smaller body to be known as ‘Equity Squads’ with such representation as is considered necessary for maintaining vigil and preventing any discrimination on the campus,” the notification said.
Rohith Vemula, a PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad, died by suicide in 2016, allegedly following caste-based harassment. Payal Tadvi, a resident doctor at Mumbai’s Topiwala National Medical College and BYL Nair Hospital, died by suicide in 2019, allegedly after facing casteist abuse by seniors.
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