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After weeks of protests being organised at Hindu College due to the availability and facilities of the girls hostel, the Delhi Commission for Women has sought UGC’s response.

 

The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has issued fresh summons to the University Grants Commission (UGC), for the latter failed to respond to the earlier ones, say the members of the DCW. On the issue of the girls’ hostel of Hindu College, the DWC stood alongside the students who were protesting day and night. They sought a reply from the former as to there was a Rs. 30,000 difference in the fees of the girls’ and the boys’ hostel. This move was adopted after the panel had repeatedly written to the UGC seeking answers regarding the discriminatory hostel fee for the University as a whole, but they were not obliged with a response.

 

Protests have been circumventing the College for the past few days. They started with the students having foundational demands like reduction of fees for the girls’ hostel, similar curfew timings and rules in comparison to the boys’ hostel, the formation of a Student Council for them (like the one that exists in the boys’ Hostel) for facilitating communication between the administration and the students. The umbrella goal for these gatherings was to lobby for a clearly chalked out transparent admission process, where allotment of seats in the hostel would be made according to a cut-off list while maintaining the reserved seats for different categories.

 

The Commission also complained of many colleges within the University not having hostel for girls, making it even more difficult for them to come to Delhi and receive education. The girls who do come here are forced to live as paying guests in accommodations provided by private individuals who charge them exorbitantly.

 

The student protestors, apart from demanding equality in terms of rules and fees, also demanded an explanation as to why, after such long 117 years of the existence of the college, the authorities realised that girls also study here and they do need a roof under which they can stay. It is alarming that the realisation of the necessity of accommodation dawned upon them after decades, and yet the provision offered remains unaffordable to more than half of the population of this country.

Feature Image Credits: The Times of India

Ananya Bhardwaj

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Pinjra Tod held a press conference on May 9, 2016, reacting to the issuing of notices by the Delhi Commission for Women to universities in Delhi University based on the exhaustive report submitted to the state body by them. The report, which was submitted in November last year, documents testimonials and experiences from women students across colleges and universities in Delhi and includes a comparative study of men’s and women’s hostels under Delhi University to prove that women students pay much more than their male counterparts.

The notices have been issued to all 23 registered universities in Delhi, as well as all undergraduate colleges under Delhi University which have women’s hostels. The DCW has instituted an enquiry based on several findings included in the Pinjra Tod report and has asked the universities for a response within 15 days’ time. The various questions the Commission has asked the universities and colleges to respond to include the number of students in hostel disaggregated by gender, the entry and exit time restrictions in the hostel, and the annual hostel fees charged disaggregated by gender. The notice also raised questions on the constitutionality of the current rules in effect in universities across the country. For a state body to recognise this will have implications not just for the universities directly questioned but for institutes across the country.

The notice has been welcomed and is been seen as a powerful achievement by Pinjra Tod, which has emerged as a strong movement of women students across the country fighting against discriminatory practices that plague university life for them. The movement plans to open direct dialogue with college and university administrations about their demands in the coming semester. This is being seen as a necessity, given the lack of response and non-committal progress that has been made following previous notices such as in the case of Jamia Millia Islamia, where the authorities promised to review its hostel rules in the wake of a similar notice last year but nothing concrete changed.

Feature Image: The Facebook page of Pinjra Tod

Shubham Kaushik

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