PhD students from Mysore University have been protesting over the last few days demanding basic amenities on campus. The Dalit Students Association and the Researchers’ Association have come together to fight for demands that range from a mess in their hostel to the demand for scholarships for SC, ST and OBC students, the denial of which is depriving them of the opportunity to apply for PG courses.
The Associations say that SC, ST and OBC PhD students have not been receiving their scholarship money since the last academic year. This has resulted in them not being able to apply for postgraduate courses since they haven’t been able to pay their fees because of which the students are being denied their documents and certificates. “There is a misunderstanding between the University and the government and the students are caught in all of this. The University is saying they haven’t received enough funds and the government is saying they’ve disbursed the amount. Now colleges are refusing to issue certificates and documents to the students, which means that none of them are able to apply for postgraduate courses,” a PhD student from the University of Mysore explained. This is a problem for students across the state, the scholar said.
Students on campus at the University have a longer list of issues that they are protesting against. The students claim that colleges in Mangalore, Tumkur, Shimoga, Dharwad and several other universities were providing research students with free laptops. “We’ve been making this demand for the last couple of years. Two of the constituent colleges under the University, Maharaja College and Yuvaraja College don’t directly come under the scheme, so students are being denied laptops. We should be getting free laptops,” the scholar said.
Another major issue that has left the research students enraged is the fact that they don’t have a mess in their hostel. “We have been asking the administration for so long for a mess in our hostel. We have to go outside the campus to get food. The gate is very far away from the hostel too and so even if we order food, we have to go a long way to receive it. There isn’t a library or computers or any reading material in the hostel. Forget this, we don’t even have proper drinking water,” the students complain.
“This year, the University celebrated the 100th convocation and we are still demanding such basic facilities. We want a 24/7 health centre, sports equipment, a gym, a computer lab, and we have also been asking for training for competitive exams. So many other developmental projects are happening on campus, there are 700 CCTVs but we don’t even have a mess for researchers in our hostel,” the students say.
The police are only allowing 50 students to protest, so the students have been gathering outside Crawford Hall. “The administration keeps giving us the same response each time, that they will try to fulfill the demands. We are tired of the same reply, so now we’ve decided to continue the protests till the demands are met,” the students say.
We’ve reached out to the University for a response and will update this copy when we receive it.
