As soon as the Delhi University initiated its admission process there have been complaints that it is discriminatory and not "student-friendly". The Bulletin of Information for Admission states that application fees for students applying under the OBC category are Rs 250 (additional Rs 750 for entrance courses) for undergraduate courses and Rs 750 for the postgraduate courses, considerably higher than what students applying under SC, ST or EWS categories (Rs 100 for UG and Rs 300 for PG). This is not all — the bulletin also states that the OBC applicants have to provide certificates of the current year, which is a task during this pandemic and also provide income certificate of the current year.
Students have raised their voices against this notification. Amisha Nanda, an undergraduate student at the university wrote to the National Commission for Backward Classes asking them to take notice of the matter. "This is not judicious in any way. Even the income limit of both the categories (EWS and OBC) is Rs 8 lakhs per year. Then why take extra fees from the socially and educationally backward OBCs?" asked Amisha in her letter. "We demand the fees be reduced to Rs 300 immediately for OBC students as well. This stands in the interest of a large number of students and teachers of a hundred-year-old University," she further writes. Her letter was in the context of the postgraduate admission bulletin.
The bulletin states that if a student belongs to either SC, ST, PwBD or EWS category and is applying for the postgraduate courses they will have to pay Rs 300 while if a student is from OBC category, unreserved or other categories they will have to pay Rs 750. The fees are even steeper for the undergraduate courses — registration fee for merit-based courses for OBC and unreserved categories is Rs 250 while for SC, ST, PwBD and EWS it is just Rs 100. The additional registration fee for each entrance-based courses also shows disparity — Rs 750 for OBC students while Rs 300 for the latter categories mentioned above.
Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) President Dr Rajib Ray said that this has been a recurring issue and the university has not taken steps to correct it. "This issue was raised last year as well and we were assured it will be looked into. But nothing has been done from the university's side till now. The university is aware of the issues, we hope they will take it up and make the admission process more students friendly," said Dr Ray. "The OBC certificates, that have been asked to be provided will be very difficult to get in this time of crisis when accessibility is minimised. One more issue that has come up is that of the income certificates to be provided by the OBC applicants. This is redundant because the SDMs have already checked the necessary certificates and this is just an unnecessary addition," he added.
The university officials have not responded to our enquiry yet. This copy will be updated as and when they respond.
