Free bus travel leaves girls’ hostels nearly ‘empty’

The arts and science colleges are facing an unforeseen problem after the DMK government’s new scheme allowing free travel for women in government town buses. Sources said that most private arts and science colleges are now finding no takers for their girls’ hostels, which are present in most districts, as no student will have to travel more than 45 km for an arts college.

In Ranipet district, Visharam, Arcot, Ranipet and Wallajahpet municipalities are contiguous. While Visharam and Arcot are on one side of the Palar, Ranipet and Wallajahpet town are separated by a couple of kilometres on the other side of the river. Hence, the district has adequate number of arts colleges where students do not have to travel even 10 km to reach their educational institution.

In Vellore, an official of a leading private college said, “we have no takers for the hostel this year and have decided to divert the 25 college buses to various other duties.” Fifteen such vehicles have been deputed to ply on

regular routes as the college official is also a bus operator.

In Tiruvannamalai Government Arts College – a co-educational institution hostels exist only for boys, hence girls were forced to rely on private facilities.

Owner of one such facility said, “usually when colleges announce reopening dates we will be flooded with requests for accommodation, but this time, the free travel scheme has resulted in girls not seeking hostel accommodation as they can travel home daily.”

A popular private college in Tirupattur provides accommodation only for girl students of PG course while the girls of UG courses will have to find rooms elsewhere. “However, the clear picture regarding the need for hostels will be known only after government announces PG admissions” an official said.

Another fallout is that with hostels empty, college managements are finding it difficult to retain cooks, ayahs and housekeepers. However, these workers have found employment through SHGs to whom banks willingly advance loans due to high repayment, a private college secretary revealed.

“They now operate machines to grind wet flour for households and are not unhappy about the change in their work,” he added.