The Delhi State Committee of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has compiled a list of demands from the students of Delhi to be included in different political parties’ election manifestos for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.
Accessible education for every student in Delhi, accommodation facilities for all students in Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs), fee concession for students from economically weaker sections (EWS), free transportation for students, People with Disability (PwD) and queer-friendly campuses, were some of the many demands listed in SFI’s Student Manifesto.
Today, Monday, March 18, the SFI Delhi State delegation met with Ghulam Ahmed Mir, All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary and Congress Working Committee member and submitted the Delhi Students' Manifesto urging them to incorporate these demands into the party's manifesto.
The same has also been submitted to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Communist Party of India- Marxist (CPI (M)) as well.
This manifesto is divided into four parts including general demands of students, demands related to students at HEIs, specific demands of PhD students, and demands by queer students.
Demands from students of Delhi:
-Access to education for everyone including residential campuses and free hostels for gendered, caste, and religious minorities
-No privatisation and commercialisation of education
-Scientific and democratic education; NCERT and SCERT committees to be reconvened with no political appointments
-Gender-neutral educational spaces, mental health camps and 24/7 mental health helplines for students, placement cells on campuses
-Hostel facilities for all enrolled students in every university and college in Delhi
-Reduce fee hike that happened in colleges since the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020
-Increase in number of seats in colleges, one new college in every constituency of Delhi
-Fee concession for students from economically weaker sections
-Free and accessible transportation for students, special concessional metro passes for students with at least 50% fare concessions, free Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses
-Mandatory and well stocked medical room with doctors available throughout the college hours, on-campus therapists
-Facilities for PwD students, wheelchairs, ramps, audio-to-speech technology among other latest technology
-No Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP)
-Strict implementation of reservation policies across universities in Delhi
- Basic functioning amenities like healthy drinking water, sanitary pad dispensers, college canteens in all campuses
-More PhD seats, appropriate fellowships for all PhD students
-Regular survey for the formal record of the number of transgender students enrolling in higher education and number of dropouts
-Horizontal reservation for transgender students in all educational institutions, reserved hostels for queer and transgender students
- Gender neutral washrooms, gender sensitisation workshops, sex and adolescent education classes for students
