Stop treating us like kids: AUD students to Kejriwal after Delhi asks parental consent for campus return

In a scathing letter, the students call out the AAP government for infantalising those who voted them back to power as recently as 2020
Pic: Instagram
Pic: Instagram

Parents are used to hearing their teenage children tell them, "Don't treat us like children." Now, Manish Sisodia is getting an extended dose of that teenage angst — except, it's coming from university students studying in colleges run by the Government of Delhi. In a letter sent to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, students from the Dr BR Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) have said, "Stop treating university students like children." 

Late August, a decision from the AUD which is run by the Delhi government, decided to call final year students and those pursuing their MPhil and PhD back to campus. However, Delhi's Education Minister Manish Sisodia imposed a condition on this much-awaited return for the students — they would need a consent form signed by their parents to be allowed back on campus.

On September 30, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) wrote to the Chief Minister’s Office — a sardonic letter, calling the move insensitive and tone-deaf. “At that specific age (18), they become eligible to vote and elect their local, state-level and national-level representatives. As many as 3/5th of young students voted for the Aam Aadmi Party in 2020. So, the government’s demand for parental consent really questions the legitimacy of its own return to power for the second time,” said the letter by the SFI unit of AUD.

The student union also claims that the move has put the onus on the parents to ensure the safety of students during the pandemic, and alleviated any responsibility that the government was encumbered with. “When the burden of the student getting infected is now on the family, university/college administrations have no impetus to ensure that COVID-19 protocols are followed strictly on campuses. This, contrary to mitigating the virus spread, exacerbates it,” it states.

A screengrab of the email sent to the Chief Minister of Delhi | Pic: Sourced

Taking the argument a step further, Anil Sethumadhavan, President of SFI, AUD, spoke with Edexlive and questioned the government’s assumption that all students live with their parents. “We are all adults. A lot of students are living independently, and not with their families. The university has done this before, by bringing in parents whenever issues crop us here. Earlier this year, when a student was suspended for various reasons, they contacted his parents directly, and that was problematic because he was not on the best of terms with his parents because of his political views,” claims Anil. 

“The entire problem with asking the consent from parents is that many students are feeling alienated in their houses and from their parents. Asking for the consent form is problematic. In cases when other students would be going to school and few can't go because their parents don't allow it, it would have an adverse effect on the students. It's high time to reopen schools and campuses without any so-called consent," said Sumit Kataria, President, SFI Delhi State Committee, to Edexlive.

The letter also points out that the financial crises that a lot of households in India are battling due to the pandemic might keep them from sending the students back to campus. “... to think that all households are harmonious is a grave fallacy. This is especially true for women, transgender, and gender non-conforming students, who often face restrictions on their everyday mobility. Economic distress, worsened by the pandemic, may force parents to use the labour of their children on all days. We foresee more parents not consenting to physical classes, than otherwise,” it reads. Anil also added that by infantilising students, the government is taking away their agency, and putting them in difficult positions with regard to family. 

Another set of students who will find this rule tough to work with are those who are queer. Anil tells us that several of them are not living with their parents because of various reasons. “It is problematic to ask them to connect with their parents and ask for consent,” he says.  

The letter ends on a rather sarcastic note, asking how the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal would have felt if the Election Commissioner had asked him to furnish his parent's consent in the nomination form. “You would think very lowly of the bureaucrat,” it concludes.

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