Pinjra Tod, an autonomous collective of women students in Delhi, staged a protest on Thursday at the Arts Faculty of Delhi University against the alleged high fee structure at student hostels. They also protested against the “discriminatory” high fee imposed on women in the name of safety. They have now asked the UGC to set an upper limit on hostel fee as an immediate step.
No charges for men
They said that various hostels charge an extra fee for granting “added security” and guards at women’s hostels which the students are forced to bear over the already high fees.
According to them, at St. Stephen’s women’s hostel, women pay an extra ₹1,000 per semester, whereas no such charges are attached to men’s hostels. On an average, the university forces women students to pay an extra ₹2,958 every month more than men for undergraduate courses and an additional ₹2,614 for postgraduate courses. Colleges with allegedly exorbitantly high fees include Hindu College, Khalsa College, Daulat Ram College and Indraprastha College where the fee structure is over ₹1,40,000, ₹90,000, ₹1,16,000, and ₹1,20,000 respectively.
They are also demanding the formation of a democratic system for the Internal Complaints Committee to address cases of sexual harassment, its prevention and redressal.
Devangana, a member of Pinjra Tod, said that when the UGC circular for prevention of sexual harassment in universities was taken to the proctor of DU demanding to contest elections for setting up an internal sexual harassment grievances panel, they replied saying that there is already too much chaos happening in the university in the name of DUSU elections.
Pinjra Tod has been regularly reaching out to the DCW and UGC with these issues. Their demands include standardising the rules for all hostels and also to build women’s hostels on South Campus.
They claim that even though curfew timings at Hindu College have been standardised, women going out is still strictly governed.
