The students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi have released a statement in response to the administration's decision to partially roll back the fee hike for MTech and PhD programmes that they were protesting against.
Dissatisfied with the partial roll back, the students have highlighted the financial burdens they are facing and have claimed that fee hikes and stagnant stipends have left students distressed.
Stressing on the issue of stipends, which are paid by the Government of India, the students said, "The MTech stipend was increased from Rs 8000 to Rs 12,400 in 2014, and it has remained unchanged thereafter. The PhD stipend was revised after a series of protests from Rs 25,000 to Rs 31,000 for the first two years and from Rs 31,000 to Rs 35,000 for the next three years, and remained the same thereafter."
The students said that given the average inflation rate of 6% over the last eight years and the financial burdens brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic, the hikes in fees by "centralised institutes like IIT Delhi by 150%, students are left with financial strain and years of debt."
They also point out that they do not wish to be a financial burden on their parents anymore and many now have dependents to care of. Students say that apart from the academic stress, having to protest against fee hikes and low stipends prevents them from "focusing on their academics", as suggested by the IIT Delhi administration after the partial roll back. Students remarked that they are not disrupting the "integrity of the campus" by protesting and are merely raising their voices for their rights.
After the partial roll back by the IIT Delhi administration, a student, on the condition of anonymity had told EdexLive that the student body had not yet taken a decision on whether their protests will continue.
Last month, it was the students of IIT Bombay who had embarked on an indefinite hunger strike against the hike in the MTech and PhD fee, forcing the administration to revoke its decision. The IIT Bombay administration had said that the hike was implemented in order to keep up with the rising infrastructural costs of the institute.
