2019 has seen many prominent Indian universities coming under the pump. Of late, universities in Lucknow, Punjab and Magadh have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Recently, students at the Punjab University had launched a protest after the management had failed to grant them access to the GTB reading hall. Then, a fake marksheet scandal was seen rocking Lucknow University. It seems like universities in India aren’t taking teaching seriously.
April 29 was just another day at Jamia Millia Islamia, one of the country’s premier media universities. The scorching summer night of April 29 saw the university’s management experiencing heat of a different kind.
A protest broke out near the Jammu and Kashmir women’s hostel. The reason for the uproar was the management’s inability to install coolers in the hostel. The protest broke out at around 9 p.m. and went on till 3 a.m. in the morning.
Sadly, the protest wasn’t followed by any kind of intervention by the management. According to reports, nearly 200 girls are believed to have taken part in the protest.
The protesters claimed that they had requested the administration to allow them to bring their own coolers, but the request was declined citing issues related to wiring and electricity.
“For days, residents have been falling sick because of dehydration and heat strokes, but their voices are blatantly being ignored and their situations being unseen by the authorities,” a student was quoted as saying. “There are ACs in the rooms of the provost and the head warden on the ground floor even though they said the wiring is not fit for coolers,” said another student.
But, apparently, the boys’ hostel is equipped with coolers.
“We are not allowed to even bring our own coolers. But the boys hotels are all equipped with coolers,” the protestors said.
The problem doesn’t end here; it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Poor quality of food and lack of adequate WiFi facilities has intensified the situation. Several students have taken to Twitter in order to voice their concern.
Vice-Chancellor Najma Akhtar met the students, but her intervention did not yield favourable results. While Akhtar has always been vocal about the need for gender equality, her silence on events happening in her own campus is surprising and indicative of the fact that we are far from achieving equality for women in campus spaces. Nobody from the university’s management has spoken to the media about the issue.
The J&K women’s hostel was inaugurated back in 2017 and can accommodate close to 700 students. The hostel was built after an agreement and an MoU signed between JMI and the J&K government. At present, a fee of ₹8,000 is charged by the hostel.
Each and every student using the hostel facility is required to sign a declaration which automatically brings them under the authority of the Vice-Chancellor, Provost and the Warden. This can easily transform into an element of fear of the administration and, in turn, may be used to curb dissent.
Featured image for representative purpose only.
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