Speaking at the 31st United Nations Human Rights Council on Saturday, Professor Nitin Gangurde raised the issue of Rohith Vemula's suicide. Vemula, a PhD student at the Hyderabad Central University, committed suicide on January 17.

Gangurde, who belongs to the Centre for Human Rights and Peace Advisory, urged the government of India through the United Nations to “secure the rights of minorities in India.”

In the video above, Gangurde reads out from a written statement: “On 17 January 2016, a Dalit research student Rohith Vemula committed suicide against the ugly caste system in India. It shows the treatment being meted out to Dalits in educational institutes and other fields of daily life.”

While Gangurde’s oratorial skills could certainly do with some honing (it’s a tad breathless), he raises the important issue of caste-based discrimination in educational institutes before a global forum. Besides Vemula’s suicide, he cites an example from a school in Rajasthan where a lower caste child was beaten up by a teacher for touching the plate of a non Dalit student.