The IIT Bombay campus, supposed to be cosmopolitan in nature, is Hindi-centric, feel more than half the students.
So, those from the southern states find it difficult to mingle with others and end up forming their own social groups and sticking to them throughout their stay in the institute.
These are some of the findings of an extensive survey conducted by IIT Bombay students. They have compiled it in a report, "We don't need no segregation", published in the latest issue of the campus newspaper "Insight".
The survey finds that 83% students in the campus are fluent in Hindi while 17% are not. Of those who have a tough time adjusting in the campus because they don't know Hindi, "89% are from south India. And 78% speak Telugu", according to the report.
The sprawling IIT-B campus in Powai is residential with more than 6,000 students from across the country studying in various undergrad, postgrad and research courses.
According to the report, over 56% students feel the campus is Hindi-centric despite the medium of teaching being purely English. "Not knowing Hindi can be a problem as it is an informal pre-requisite for entering various social circles and clubs," finds the survey which also says non-Hindi speaking students try to pick up Hindi but always feel other would make fun of them.
A computer science and engineering student from Warangal said: "Hindi is almost an alien language in my hometown. It is a third language in schools. Though teaching, books, presentations... everything is in English, Hindi rules outside the class, in the hostels, mess and even at sports grounds."
Lack of English knowledge leads to poor marks
Though the dean of students' affairs claims that the institute provides English training for non-English medium students, a survey among freshers reveals the institute's efforts are too little and ineffective. Students who wrote JEE in Hindi struggle in academics, which is purely in English and score poor in exams.
Reserve category students score poor
The survey highlights an issue that has been raised by the faculty time to time: many reserve category student find it difficult to cope with studies and fare poor in the exams.
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