The agitating students at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) here are planning to launch a nation-wide movement demanding enactment of “Rohith Act” to end caste discrimination in colleges and universities across the country.

The campaign will be launched in New Delhi on 23 February to mobilise support for formulation of a central act to end caste discrimination, exclusion and humiliation of Dalits in higher educational institutions. 

“We are in touch with Sukhadeo Thorat, Professor Emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Chairman, Indian Council of Social Science Research, and other academicians sympathetic to our cause for preparing a draft bill in this regard,” P Vijay Kumar, one of the five Dalit students suspended along with Rohith by the UoH said.

As part of the movement, efforts will be made to enlist the support of all political parties to put in place a legislative mechanism for protection of Dalit rights in educational institutions.