Tag

pwd students

Browsing

Hindu College Boys’ Hostel ended its strike on Wednesday, 26th February 2020 after the administration agreed to their demands. Three students were on a hunger strike since Monday. 

The residents of Hindu College Boys’ Hostel had posed the list of long-standing demands to the Principal on Monday, 24th February 2020 and on her failure to address them, they began an indefinite strike at 1:30 pm in front of the college administration. Around 50-60 students were protesting against three major issues:

  1. Merit criterion that was increased for the readmission of second and third years including PWD students
  2. Resolving of Wi-Fi problems. 
  3. Reinstallation of hostel boundaries that were broken for the construction of a food joint PAM (Pizza and More) within the hostel premises. 

The present criterion for admissions and retention of seats in the hostel is 6.5 CGPA for Arts and 7.0 for Science and Commerce courses and considered averse to the students participating in extracurricular activities or preparing for entrance exams. The residents demanded revision in the re-admission criteria, decreasing it to the previous 6 CGPA for Arts/Humanities courses and 6.5 CGPA for Science and Commerce courses and scrapping it altogether for Persons With Disabilities (PwD) students. In the official application to the Principal, the President of the Hostel Union writes that in case a student fails to maintain the criteria then his contribution in ECA and Sports should be considered. 

IMG-20200226-WA0061

Image Caption: Students write to the Principal for redressal of their demands. 

Regarding the Wi-Fi issue a resident of the hostel quotes, “Wi-Fi concerns the accessibility of study material to the students since DU servers provide access to academic websites and even general connectivity considering the poor signals around the campus.” In fact, a payment of Rs 3,500 was taken at the beginning of the academic year for replacing the existing Wi-Fi system but no action was taken. 

Pizza and More (PAM) is a shop in the college that was being shifted in one of the hostel lawns since a new building was being built over there. According to the students, the construction of the cafe in the hostel lawns is an attack on their democratic spaces where they can sit, talk, organize events or play cricket. A resident anonymously told us, “The decision of PAM being constructed in our hostel lawns indicates the increasing privatization in our college. Moreover, it would create inconvenience for the residents especially the ones residing in rooms facing these lawns since their privacy would be in threat and also the cooking would cause a lot of smoke”. Some parts of the construction were started without the consent of the hostel union after which it was destroyed by the students the very next day.  

The students ended their strike on Wednesday, 26th February 2020 after two of their three demands were accepted. They have been assured by the authorities that they will look into the Wi-Fi problems and construction of PAM. The residents reported, “The Principal told us that the readmission criteria are decided by the warden and hostel committee. Since we could get her to accept what was in her hands, we stopped protesting in front of the Principal’s office. The warden also has assured us that the hostel committee will try to relax the criteria especially for PWD students.”

DU Beat reached out to the Union members and residents on hunger strike for their statement, but is yet to receive an official response from their end. This report will be updated as and when the parties comment.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Aishwaryaa Kunwar

[email protected] 

 

Mr. Manoj Tiwari, the Minister of Parliament (MP) from East Delhi sanctioned the funding for two mini-buses to be able to provide safer transport facilities for the differently-abled students in the University of Delhi (DU).

Mr. Shakti Singh, the current President of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) requested Mr Manoj Tiwari who is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from East Delhi for better transportation facilities for the differently abled.

INR 19,90,000 were sanctioned for the purchase of two Data Winger Motor Cars from the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) fund. These mini buses were provided to Delhi University’s Equal Opportunity Cell (EOC)

Singh made this appeal on the 17th August and two days later, in a communique to the Commissioner, Mr. Tiwari has instructed the corporation to issue technical, financial and administrative sanctions within a time frame of 75 days.

The letter written by Mr. Tiwari to sanction the mini-buses for differently-able students Image Credits: Ashutosh Singh for Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)
The letter written by Mr. Tiwari to sanction the mini-buses for differently-able students
Image Credits: Ashutosh Singh for Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)

The University used to have transport facilities which were stopped in the year 2009. The differently abled living in the hostels had to go through various difficulties. Tactile paths were lacking which made it difficult to move freely. This was then later on dealt with by DUSU.

Shakti Singh DUSU President shared with DU Beat that, “Bohoth sari problems maine dekhi jispar humne kaam kiya. Pehla tha food jisko humne solve kiya, dusra tha tactile path, voh asuvidha bhi humne door kardi. Divyang chatro ko pedal jana padtha hain jo kaafi kathin hain. Humne Tiwari Ji se bath ki aur unhone fund release kardiya. Within 45 days ye laagu hoga (We saw various problems that we worked on. The first one being food which we solved second was tactile path. We resolved that incontinence as well. The physically impared had to walk which is a difficult task. We spoke to Mr. Tiwari and they released the fund. This shall be implemented within 45 days)”

He added that there were further facilities that needed to be provided and that DUSU was working on the same.

Feature Image Credits: The Hindu

Stephen Mathew

[email protected]