New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) Representatives of students’ organisation Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS), along with the students of Jesus and Mary College, gave a memorandum to the college principal Molly K.A demanding hostel facilities for needy outstation students, a statement said.
Bhim Kumar, member of KYS Delhi State Committee, said on Tuesday that the delegation was led by the organisation’s activists Mudita and Amrita.
He added that the submission of memorandum on Tuesday was a part of a wider campaign launched by the KYS to demand adequate hostel facilities for students in the wake of the Satya Niketan building collapse tragedy on September 6 which claimed seven lives.
During the meeting with the principal, the students also apprised KYS about surveillance of women students through the CCTVs in classrooms.
“This is unprecedented and exists nowhere else in Delhi University. Such an anti-women practice, that too by a college administration, is condemnable,” the statement said, adding that the KYS will take up this issue with the college administration in the coming days.
The delegation later also met the Maitreyi College Principal Haritma Chopra and submitted a memorandum.
The Satya Niketan tragedy is not merely an isolated incident of a building collapse. It has exposed a much larger and long-standing problem of non-provision of hostel facilities in colleges, the statement said.
In the absence of hostel facilities, students are compelled to live in rented rooms and paying-guest accommodations, often in unsafe buildings and insecure neighbourhoods, it added.
“They (students) are often subject to harassment, arbitrary restrictions and exploitative behaviour from landlords and PG owners. Women students are particularly affected, as they, apart from unsafe buildings, have to face daily harassment from landlords in insecure neighbourhoods,” it said.
The KYS, in the meetings with Principals, demanded that the college administrations take immediate concrete steps towards providing hostel facilities for needy outstation students.
The KYS said that it is going to step up its campaign for hostels for needy outstation students across DU and other higher education institutions in Delhi.
The organisation will also take up the issue of surveillance of women students in Jesus and Mary College, the statement said.
–IANS
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