The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Without a hostel seat, what some students have been forced to do
Every year, hundreds of students pour in from all over the country to study in the top universities of Delhi. Both DU and JNU get a sizeable number of students from outside Delhi. A hostel room, therefore, is a basic necessity for many to study in the university of their dreams. However, with the universities facing a hostel crunch, life becomes a struggle for many students from modest backgrounds who do not get a hostel seat. Many are forced to make compromises and sacrifices that they shouldn’t have to make to study in some of the best institutions in the country.
Life on the footpath, shelters for the homeless
For Ajay Singh Sikarwar (19), the sacrifice was sleeping in homeless shelters and footpaths, and taking help in whichever form it came. The first night the Ramjas College student Sikarwar spent in Delhi was in a homeless shelter in Sadar Bazar. It was not the only one. For a year, the BSC Life Sciences student spent nights in shelters and footpaths till a college senior took him in. He will be homeless again next year when his senior graduates. Sikarwar’s parents own two bighas of land in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, and barely manage togrowenoughgraintofeedthemselves.they did not want him to come to Delhi.
“My parents don't have money to fund my education. They gave me Rs 10,000 to take admission in a course of my choice but the course fee was Rs 12,000. Members of some student parties gave me the rest and I took admission. I slept in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad office for a few days but there was no way I could stay on. The managers at the homeless shelters told it was no place for a student to stay so I slept on the footpath outside the college. There is not a single place in Delhi where I could get affordable or subsidised accommodation,” he says.
He would go to the PG Men's Hostel to take a bath and would eat at the Delhi University Teachers’ Association canteen. He now lives with a college senior who pays his share in the rented accommodation. A wellwisher from Gurgaon often sends him money for books and food.
“Mein Hindi-medium main padha hoon, English medium main zyada score nahi kar pata toh mujhe scholarship milne ka bhi scope nahi hai. Hostel mil bhi jaata toh fees nahi de pata. (I studied in Hindi-medium till class 12. I can't score well in English medium so there is no scope of me getting a a scholarship. Even if I got the hostel, I wouldn't have been able to pay the fee)," he says. Like hundreds of students, men and women, who can't afford to stay comfortably in Delhi, Sikarwar laments the missing infrastructure.
Spending nights in the library
Vinayak Sarkar had secured the eighth rank in his entrance exam at JNU this year and did not think twice while joining “one of the best institutes in the country”. Little did he know that the rank would not ensure him a hostel seat. He spent the first couple of days staying in others hostel rooms, which were already packed, changing beds every night. He found it did not give him enough time to study. Sarkar, then spent his nights for an entire week in the library, only going to someone’s room in the morning.
“I left many institutions to study in JNU, and while the classes and teachers have been great, the hostel crisis is a big problem. I had stayed with a couple of seniors and friends initially, but I realised it was becoming difficult to study. Moreover, not everyone is from the same course and cultural background and it gets difficult to adjust. I spent a week in the library because I had no room; no place to study, and I didn’t want to disturb others,” says the MSC student of the School of Life Sciences.
Realising that he wouldn’t be allotted a hostel anytime soon, he decided to shift to Munirka with a senior, and now pays Rs 5,000 per month as rent — five times the annual hostel fee in JNU. He says his is “the story of almost every fresher who took admission this year”.
Letting go of admission after not getting hostel
For a woman student, getting a hostel accommodation is the difference between studying or skipping admission in the country's premier institution.
A student from Himachal Pradesh, took admission in a science course at Hindu College last year but withdrew after she failed to get admission in the university undergraduate hostel. Her parents could afford to put her up in a paying guest accommodation, but were not convinced she would be safe.
“If the university or the college had a few off-campus hostels, I would not have to give up my seat. I pleaded with my parents but they were not ready to let me live on my own,” she says. Now, she studies in a college in Chandigarh and stays in the college hostel.
“It is not the same. I have friends in Delhi University who are getting the exposure I can never get in Chandigarh. A hostel accommodation would have meant a lot in my case,” she adds.
Tough for women in JNU too
In JNU too, women students are facing a tough time. Many of them have had to stay “illegally” in dormitories, accommodating extra beds in the dorm already filled to capacity. A student, for instance, is staying in Chandrabagha Hostel “illegally” since a room has not been allotted yet. Although there are 30 beds in the dormitory, students say close to 45 girls stay in the dormitory.
“I had spoken to a former JNUSU office bearer when I joined JNU, and asked him if they could make some arrangements. I was one of the first few to enter the Chandrabagha dormitory, and have been living here since then. There are many problems staying like this. Wardens checked IDS in another dormitory recently and we’re scared we may be thrown out anytime,” she adds.
Staying out of the campus is not an option for her, given the prohibitive cost of living and commuting.
“We’re paying extra here anyway. Unlike others who have mess accounts, we have to pay for meals every day, which is more expensive. Our expenses come to around Rs 3,000 per month, whereas other students pay Rs 1,800-1,900 per month,” she says.