Citizens March

On Saturday, 23rd November, there was a citizen's march from Mandi House to Parliament Street. It was supposed to be till Parliament but we were stopped just before the Parliament Street Police Station.

I participated. It was spur of the moment decision.  I had planned to surrender my landline that day but when my friend asked whether I would like to join, I decided I had to do it.  The landline can be surrendered any other day but showing solidarity with the students did not come every day.

I would like to add some caveats here: I belong neither to the Left nor to the Right.  As another friend of my mine put it, I just am with what I believe is right (as opposed to wrong).  I will also add here that the continued lock down of the School/University administration fills me with apprehension.  I do not see a plan B or a way out of the impasse. I also do not think there should be only one fee structure for everyone but that can be debated later.

Hopefully, things will resolve this week.  I fervently hope so.

Back to the March.

Our students were there. So were many teachers. And many ex-students. There were students from other Universities.  I was delighted to see AIIMS- very unexpected-but they were there with a banner.
Talking of banners, there were some very delightful ones including one that said "To count condoms also one needs Education."  A very nice dig at those who said that condoms are found everywhere in JNU.
The police/CRPF were there.  But nothing much happened. We marched and came to halt near the Parliament Street Police Station.  A dais had been put up and the student leaders gave speech.
My friend and I decided to grab lunch and return home.

On the way home the autorickshaw driver said that he supported us because we were right.  If the prices increase, he asked, how will I provide education to my children.

In reality, school education is a right whereas higher education is a privilege.  In the US, school education is free and compulsory.  There are private schools but only the rich can afford them.  Everyone else just sends their children to the government schools.  Higher (college) education is expensive. There are scholarships and many students do end up taking college loan that they have to repay.  Also, not many end up taking college education.  They have other choices in terms of community colleges.

Of course in India everything is complicated by economy, patriarchy, religion, and caste. Neither school education nor higher education is accessible to many sections of the society. We need to make both accessible.

The fee hike in JNU

Yesterday my cousin called me and asked am I okay?  Given the fact that JNU was in turmoil, she was worried about my well-being.

Over the past 14 years, I have learnt one thing about JNU: Our student never resort to violence against their teachers.  I have never seen them doing harm to the teachers.  Despite all the turmoil and all the protests, our students are attending classes.  Protests and learning happens hand in hand.

The current turmoil/protest is over the fee hike and changes in the hostel manual-both of which was done without consultation with the students.  The changes in the hostel manual regarding the timings and curfew has been dropped but only after the students protested and the MHRD intervened.  It needs to be pointed out the HRD minister talked to the students on the day of convocation and assured them that he will look into the matter.  The 50% cut for the BPL students was, in fact, first tweeted by the MHRD Secretary.

So let us look into the fee hike. 
1. The room rent has been hiked from Rs 10 per month for a double seater to Rs 300 per month.  The room rent for a single seater has been hiked from Rs 20 per month to Rs 600 per month.  
2. The mess bill is as per the actual and ranges from Rs 2500 to Rs 2800 per month.
3. There used to be charges for utilities (electricity and water) but now the students will be charged as per the actual consumption.  As no numbers are available, we cannot make a guess as to how much this will be.
4. There will be also a service charge which will cover the salary of mess works, santitation staff and all other personnel.  In the draft, it was put as Rs 1700 (as per actual) per month.  In the EC meeting, this was modified to as per actual.  So this will come to Rs 1700 per month.
5. Then there other charges like security deposit of Rs 5500 (In the draft this had been increased to Rs 12000 but in the EC meeting this was reduced back to Rs 5500).   There is an Establishment charges of Rs 1100 per semester.  Rs 250 per year is charged for utensils and Rs 50 per year is charged for newspaper.
6. Therefore, the total costs now comes to about Rs 75,000 per year without the utility charges for a double seater.  The room rent, service charges and mess bill will add up to about Rs 5000 per month plus the utility charges for a double seater.

A student who belongs to the BPL category and does not have any fellowship will pay 50% of the charges.  Everyone else will pay the fees as laid out in the new manual.

What the students are protesting about:

1.  First,  how will the poor students pay these charges?  It has been partially addressed by giving 50% concession to students belonging to BPL families. However, the devil is always in the detail.  How will the University define a student belonging to BPL?  This has been elaborated in this article: https://www.hindustantimes.com/education/who-are-jnu-s-bpl-students-who-get-50-concession/story-zEWLc4FWsNL8exOoNK2ZCO.html


2. Second, the students are asking why should we pay for the services?  Of course, we all know.  It is openly whispered around that mess workers, sanitation workers, and the supporting staff are going to be privatized.  Therefore, the money for these people is going to come from the students.  There is also an hidden clause.  Obviously, the salary for the workers will be increased every year and therefore, the service charge will go up every year.  The students are objecting to this proposition.  This is, in fact, the main point of contention.

3. Third, the hike is going to be implemented with the present batch of students.  Many of them are saying that introduce the hike from the next batch.  At least the students who are joining will know the exact cost and they can make an informed decision.  The way it is implemented now will lead to lot of hardship. 

The maximum affected will be girl students from the poorer sections of the society. In fact, one of MSc students, who is really good and asks interesting questions in the class, told me that she cannot afford the costs and she will have to quit.  I was stunned. It was at that point I realized the extent of the problem.

Most of us agree that the room rent needs to be hiked.  None of us support the vandalism that the students restored to.  They had no right to destroy public property.  The least they can do is to clean it up.

However, there is a caveat:  I really wish that the administration had not taken away their spaces for posters.  The walls of JNU used to be alive with posters- some of them were exceedingly good.  But the administration declared that posters can only put on notice boards specific for that purpose.  The walls are now dead.  There is anger on that issue too.  There are other issues too that the students are upset about.

The net result is that:

Every thing boiled over.  And I do not know where it will end.