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SFI and AISA Demand Roll of Fee Hike in DU Colleges 

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The University of Delhi (DU) has commenced admissions to undergraduate courses from the 19th of June 2018. Significantly, this year’s admission season is marked by a pronounced fee hike in many courses across the varsity. 

Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and All India Students’ Association (AISA) have resisted this move towards fee hike. Interestingly, this hike comes at the backdrop of the teacher and student community’s struggle against the onslaught of ‘autonomy’ in DU’s affiliated colleges. 

In conversation with DU Beat, Vandana Kaul, a Professor at Deshbandhu College, said, “The fee hike is indeed serious. We saw that in the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) strike, students and karamcharis had both expressed their grievances against the fragmentation and privatisation of DU through graded autonomy. The fee hike is a consequence of this move towards autonomy.”

Madhurima Kundu, Secretary of AISA’s DU unit, told the DU Beat correspondent, “On the first day of this year’s admission season, we had protested in front of the Vice Chancellor’s (VC) office. We had met the Dean of Students’ Welfare as well. We were informed that the hike in fees was carried out without knowledge of the varsity. Now, we will be holding protests in the colleges where fee hike has taken place.”

Meanwhile, in a phone call conversation with DU Beat, Anshika Dutta, a DU applicant of this academic session testified, “I have taken admission in Kamla Nehru College for B.Com (Hons) in the first list. And I had to pay over INR 13,000 for my admission.”

At Dyal Singh College, the fee was increased last year as well. The staff council has asked for a roll-back, alleging that it was done without the Governing Body’s (GB) nod. The circular which reached DU Beat through a representative of the SFI read, “In Dyal Singh College, Garden Fee has been hiked from INR 25 to INR 300, Annual Day fees from INR 30 to INR 300, Sports fees from INR 600 to INR 1500..”

Countering the claims that the fee hike was done without the approval of the GB, Principal IS Bakshi said, “The rule is, once the fee hike was decided by the Chairman, it has to be approved by the GB. I have placed it on the agenda. If re-thinking needs to be done, we will decide then.”

Some DU colleges have increased their fee citing a hike in hostel and maintenance fee. Deen Dyal Upadhyaya (DDU) College has increased its fees by almost INR 4,000. “There is a marginal increase of INR 4,000, as the annual maintenance fee of the new campus comes up to INR 3- 4 crore”, said SK Garg, Principal of DDU. The SFI’s circular informed DU Beat that in the fees of Humanities stream of the college, there has been a hike of 36%.

SFI, through its circular, has sent out a warning to the DU administration to immediately revoke the “anti-student fee hike”. The circular concluded on the note that the SFI will intensify the movement against fee-hike and autonomy in the days to come as they plan “to resist the attacks on public funded education.”

Feature Image Credits: Free Press Journal

Vaibhavi Sharma Pathak

[email protected]

 

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Students Form Human Chain to Protest Against Metro Fare Hike

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Ever since the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) announced a fare hike, the University of Delhi has been raging with a number of sit-ins and demonstrations. On Friday, Vishwavidyalaya metro station, the epicentre of all anti-fare hike protests, saw yet another demonstration.

At 1 p.m., about 50 students predominantly belonging to the All India Students’ Association (AISA) and the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) formed a human chain outside the Vishwavidyalaya metro station to protest against the metro fare hike. They demanded metro concessional passes for students. The human chain gained the attention of many onlookers who also joined in.

Talking to DU Beat about the demonstration, Kawalpreet Kaur, President of AISA DU asserted, “The whole hike in fare shows that the government is only catering to the rich and has no empathy for the common people. Within six months the fare has increased tremendously. The Delhi Metro is a public entity and not a profit-making body for whose profit the fare is being increased. I believe that it is the student community who will suffer the most. We will not swallow this yet another increase and will organise a huge movement in coming days until the hike is rolled back. Also, we demand that DU students should be given special concessional passes for the metro.”

Another student who participated in the human chain said, “We are not claiming that these things will lead to any concrete result, but at least we are trying to make our voices heard. Sometimes just dissent in itself is important.”

Earlier on Monday, a group of activists from the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) had a sit-in at Vishwavidyalaya metro station and stopped the train in its tracks. It briefly disrupted metro services.

While agitation for affordable transportation is necessary, whether or not these protests will result in policy change can only be established with time.

 

Feature Image Credits: All India Students’ Association

Niharika Dabral
[email protected]

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DUSU Elections 2017

SFI and AIDSO come together to fight ABVP in DUSU Elections

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The Delhi State Committee of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has decided to join hands with All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO), with an aim to fight against Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party for this year’s DUSU election.
In a press release, AIDSO said, “We believe in forging a broader unity of the left and democratic forces.” The radical transformation of university space in DU cannot be accomplished without building the broadest possible unity of all the progressive forces in the campus based on students’ rights, which are being attacked by the ruling ABVP led DUSU in collaboration with the Central government”.
Furthermore, their statement also stated, “SFI believes Left politics wholly depends on mobilising the masses, and this can happen only by forging broad alliances of progressive political forces in the University. In pursuance of the need for a greater unity, SFI-AIDSO has come together in Delhi University Students’ Union Elections to forge an alliance of struggles.”
The student panel standing for the election from this alliance is as follows:
1. Rafat Alam: DUSU President (SFI), M.A, from Department of Social Work
2. Jitendra Kumar: DUSU Vice-President (SFI), LLB from Campus Law Centre
3. Kolisetty Lakshmi: DUSU Secretary (SFI), from Shri Ram College of Commerce
4. Roshan: DUSU joint Secretary (AIDSO), from Satyawati College.
All India Students’ Association (AISA) is the only other Left aligned party contesting the election. Earlier this week, ABVP, NSUI and AISA also released their student panels for this year’polls.

Image credits: Asian Age

Joyee Bhattacharya
[email protected]

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“DU of my Dreams”: Halla Bol by SFI

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The Student’s Federation of India(SFI) organised an event in the Art’s Faculty, North Campus on 23rd August that comprised of a protest march from the Art’s faculty towards Ramjas College, Kirori Mal College and back. This march was joined by many SFI members as well as a number of the general university student populace who wanted to voice their grievances.

The Student’s Federation of India is a student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) working towards making the University space a comfortable for the quotidian student. The march was driven by a general discourse of the various demands of the students. Some of the points raised during the meet were:

  • Scarcity of hostels accommodations and lowering of the fee structure
  • Installations of sanitary napkin vending machines in the various colleges
  • Provision of University buses
  • Abolition of gender discriminatory rules in the university space
  • Ensure hygienic environment in the university
  • Stop vandalization of University walls by electoral parties

An SFI member spoke to us saying “Government education par zyada paisa khurch karna nahi chaate. Desh bhar ki chatraye bade sapne lekar DU aate hain lekin yaha unhe ek 6×6 size ki overpriced room main rehkar padai karna pardta hain kyunki college hostel provide nahi kar sakti. Humari maang yeh hain ki education funds ko badaya jaye.” (The Government does not wish to spend much on education. Students from all over India come to DU with dreams but on getting ere they are made to live in a 6×6 overpriced room because the college cannot provide hostel accommodations. We demand that the education funds be increased.) Slogans like “Saste hostel lekar rahenge” also resonated throughout the stretch of the march.

The gathering was addressed by the Venezuelan Counsellor, Juan V. Freer who talked about the education model and the politics of a socialist country. The organisation will soon release its manifesto for the upcoming elections which is one crafted and submitted by students across 20 colleges in the University of Delhi.

 

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat

Trishala Dutta

[email protected]

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Uncategorized

#BleedWithoutFear Surfaces in the University of Delhi

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Kerala government’s recent effort to ensure menstrual hygiene, the much thought out ‘She Pad’ scheme was announced last month by the Chief Minister of the state, Mr. Pinnarayi Vijayan. Subsequently, the Students’ Federation of India, the students’ wing of CPI(M) has also led a wider campaign with the tag, “Bleed Without Fear” in the University of Delhi; demanding installation of sanitary napkin vending machines.

The scene unfolded on a Monday morning was as such: the sight of the entire campus walls and trees pasted with sanitary napkins and the slogan, “Bleed without Fear.” A multitude of students from premier institutes like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and most colleges of the University of Delhi have extended their support to the campaigns led by SFI.

Image Credits: Prashant Mukherjee
Image Credits: Prashant Mukherjee
A signature campaign has also been initiated for the same demand. This campaign is generating great enthusiasm among the students in the campus. Hundreds of students have signed up as volunteers for the campaign in the last one week.

Image Credits: Prashant Mukherjee
Image Credits: Prashant Mukherjee
“Our demand was not only against the high GST tax on the pads, but our #BleedWithoutFear also stands for the menstrual hygienic health of the female community. Every school and college should install sanitary napkin vending machines with good quality of pads with an environment safely disposal mechanism,” said Satarupa Chakraborty, a member of SFI to the Indian Express.

Image Credits: Prashant Mukherjee
Image Credits: Prashant Mukherjee
About a month back, more than 300 female students affiliated with SFI sent sanitary napkins to the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The napkins with the slogan ‘bleed without fear, bleed without tax’ on them were sent to protest against the imposition of 12% tax as per GST.

This particular incident at the University of Delhi has been SFI’s endeavour to bring the campaign and protest on a national platform.

whatsapp-image-2017-08-01-at-22-21-10

 

 

Feature Image Credits: Prashant Mukherjee
Ankita Dhar Karmakar

[email protected]

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DUB News

SFI conducts referendum on CBCS, more than 90% vote ‘No’

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The Students’ Federation of India (SFI), CPI (M)’s student wing, conducted a referendum last week on the widely debated Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) which was implemented at the undergraduate level  this year by the Delhi University. The referendum was conducted through polling stations at 12 major colleges of the varsity. These included Kirori Mal College, Hindu College, Shri Ram College of Commerce, SGTB Khalsa College, Miranda House, Laxmi Bai College, Satyawati College, Satyawati College (Evening), Zakir Hussain College, Zakir Hussain College (Evening), Motilal Nehru College, Ram Lal Anand College, Aryabhatta College, Dyal Singh College, Dyal Singh College (Evening), Aurobindo College and Aurobindo College (Evening).

The students voted in considerable numbers at all the centres leaving the final vote count at 12,769. Out of the number of votes casted, 11,734 voted against the system by selecting the ‘No’ option on the ballot papers while 1,016 voted for it. 19 votes were deemed invalid. The counting was done on Wednesday evening outside the Arts Faculty by a three member teacher panel. 91.89% of the votes were against the system.

SFI, which claims to be constantly battling for a fair higher education system in the country, faced resistance from the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in various colleges as the former was eventually garnering a lot of support during the lead up to the referendum. The Federation now plans to do a nationwide referendum on the nature of higher education in the country and accordingly report the results to the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Image credits: SFI

Sidharth Yadav

[email protected]

 

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