For the past three days, the All India Students’ Association at Delhi University (AISA-DU) has protested against the infrastructural lapses and the apathy of the administration of the Rajiv Gandhi Hostel for Girls, DU. The association informed today, May 27, that their protest has been a success, as the administration accepted all their demands.
“Victory to the struggle of Rajiv Gandhi Girls’ Hostel residents! The admin has conceded to all demands of the students, after massive protest! Salute to the struggle of residents which made it possible”, read the poster announcing the win, shared on AISA DU’s Instagram handle.
The demands
The protest was organised to demand access to facilities like water and air conditioning, says AISA. The association writes in the post, “In the scorching heat of Delhi, the residents of Rajiv Gandhi Hostel for Girls had no access to basic facilities like water. They sat on a protest against the apathy and negligence of the DU administration and only after their struggle, their demands were finally met.”
According to Anjali Sharma, a member of AISA who was part of the protest, the demands were three-fold:
Access to clean drinking water and uninterrupted water supply
Air conditioning in the hostel
Functional WiFi connection
“These are basic needs and were not present in the hostel. Because of this, the residents were under a lot of inconvenience, especially considering the ongoing exams,” they say.
Apathy from admin
The protest was sparked by the lackadaisical attitude of the hostel management towards the maintenance of such essential infrastructure.
“When few of the residents took this issue up with the hostel matron, she told the students that they were free to vacate the hostel if the amenities were not up to their standard,” alleges Anjali.
It was after this that AISA called for an indefinite protest until the administration fixed these issues.
AISA further alleges that this apathy is fuelled by the reductions of the public education budget by the central government, and only serves to cause inconvenience to the students.
The association wrote, “It is important to note how negligence and apathy in public funded universities are perpetrated while fee hikes and lack of hostels put the lives of DU students in misery making education inaccessible to a huge majority.”
Eventually, after three days of protest, the admin accepted the demands, Anjali informed.
“The water supply issues were resolved immediately. However, we were told that the Wi-Fi connection and air conditioning repair would take time,” they added.
According to them, the hostel admin informed them that air conditioning would be functional by Sunday, June 2, and that the WiFi connections are being “looked into”.
