Students protest against meager increase in edu Budget by Centre

NEW DELHI: Students union from various universities on Tuesday protested against the proposed Budget as many academics fear this will create an increased burden on students and the privatisation of educational institutes at Jantar Mantar.

Students union like All India Students Association (AISA) and Students’ Federation of India (SFI) joined the protests. Swali AISA’S president from Delhi University said that the protest was against privatisation and the education budget cut among other issues. “For the past 2-3 years, we are seeing this pattern of privatisation in DU. We have been protesting against the autonomy of the university for quite a while, but after the budget, we saw how much the marginalised students will be hamperred,” she said.

The Budget tabled this Saturday has proposed a meager increase of 3 per cent for education, which is less than the rate of inflation. Also in the Budget speech, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said steps would be taken to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment to ensure higher quality of education.

The Budget has allocated Rs 39,466 crore for higher education in 2020-21, against Rs 38,317 crore in 2019-20. However, this paltry increase is likely to be offset by the rate of retail inflation, which rose to a five-and-a-half-year high of 7.35 per cent in December. “So many students have taken loans for their education, they should be given subsidy. It feels as if this government is attacking higher education,” added Swali.

She added that the issue of fee hike at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) was one aspect of privatisation of central universities. “Government is not listening to the voice of their students, while their demands are not being met,” she added. The student unions have said they will continue agitating against the budget and hold programmes to educate people about it as well.