Skip to main content

TISS Hyderabad: Burden of funds cut falls on students from 'marginalized' sections

Counterview Desk
Top activists associated with the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), a civil society network, including Medha Patkar, Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Shankar Singh, Dr Binayak Sen, and Prafulla Samantara, has protested against the decision of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) administration for “sine die” closure of TISS, Hyderabad Campus, even as “denying” hostel access to Dalit and Adivasi students.
Addressed to Prof Shalini Bharat, director, TISS, Mumbai, acting deputy director Prof U Vindhya,TISS, Hyderabad, and MP Balamurugan, acting registrar, TISS, Hyderabad, the letter states that the students’ protests in favour of their demands to ensure “inclusive and accessible education are completely are “fair and reasonable”, asking the authorities to lift the closure order and “take necessary steps to ensure that Dalit, Adivasi and other students from marginalized and Bahujan backgrounds have access to hostels and other amenities.”

Text

We are deeply disturbed and dismayed at the unprecedented decision of the administration of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to suddenly ‘close down sine die’ its Hyderbaad off-campus in the wake of a week-long protest by the student community. We are also quite concerned at the manner in which the administration has sought to ‘respond’ to the peaceful protests of the students, which include young dalit, adivasi and women students.
From across the country, we have been witnessing the multiple rounds of protests by the students of TISS since last year, with completely fair and reasonable demands to ensure inclusive and accessible education, especially to students from marginalized backgrounds. It is a very unfortunate state of affairs that students have to repeatedly keep protesting for their legitimate demands and this time around, about 13 students had to even go on a hunger strike for the third consecutive day.
It has come to our notice that the administration has arbitrarily decided that students should pay Rs 54,650 upfront for tuition fee and hostel, without which they will not be allowed access to hostel accommodation.
This is clearly an exclusionary step whereby most students belonging to socio-economically marginalized communities will not be able to continue education and in an indirect way reinforces rigid caste structures whereby students only from certain social locations can access quality education. Such a huge monetary expectation runs contrary to the spirit and purpose of an exemplary institution like TISS as well as the previous guidelines which stipulated payment of Rs 15,000 as accommodation charges over three instalments.
In addition to the demand of reinstating the earlier fee structure, the TISS Hyderabad Student Action Committee (SAC) also raised in its Charter of Demands the need to enable those students unable to immediately pay the dining hall fee with the option of paying their dues once their student aid and scholarship amounts are disbursed.
The fulfilment of this demand requires that the institute provide an assurance to the service provider (the private party running hostel on TISS campus) to this effect, which the administration is reportedly unwilling to do.
It is also quite disconcerting that the TISS management seems unwilling to uphold principles of transparency and display its tender documents and contract with the private party, CN Reddy, despite repeated demands from students. This is even more worrying since the private party is charging the students hostel fee for 6 months at an exorbitant rate of Rs. 8,600 per month, while the semester itself is only for a period of four months (while reportedly the same service provider charges Rs 4,500 outside)!
Students have also been complaining that the location of the girls’ hostel is unsafe, with many women facing street sexual harassment near the hostel. However, we are informed that the administration has denied responsibility for their living conditions, stating that the campus is ‘non-residential’ from the current academic year.
Furthermore, the only ‘solution’ that the private hostel owner now offers to the girl students is a suggestion to ‘return back by 9:30 pm’! It is also a matter of record that with no campus of its own, the TISS-Hyderabad has shifted thrice, first from the Roda Ministry Social Work Campus, Gachibowli to the Telangana State Institute of Panchayati Raj and Rural Development campus, Rajendra nagar to Turkyamanjal now, which is further away from the city.
We would like to state that we have perused through the letter dt. 12th July, 2019 from Prof. U. Vindhya, Deputy Director (Acting) TISS, Hyderabad Off-campus addressed to the students as well as the Sine Die Notice dated July 15 of Acting Registrar MP Balamurugan and understand that over the past week some efforts were being taken by the administration to have a dialogue and address some of the demands of the students, although not to their complete satisfaction and in writing.
We also acknowledge the initiative taken meanwhile by TISS to approve an interim, financial support of Rs 15,000 for each GOI-PMS student to pay the Service Provider for admission into the hostel, benefitting about 26 GOI-PMS student (out of a reported 36 eligible students). However, as the students rightly point out, these are piece-meal efforts and what is required is a more structured and sustainable solution to the issue that is available both to the present and subsequent batches of students. 
As you all are well aware, the very legitimate agitation of the students at TISS-Hyderabad is situated within the larger struggle to ensure a nation-wide fully state-funded common education system that would uphold and not undermine the ideal of social justice. Previously, fee waiver of SC, ST, OBC (NC) students who avail GOI-PMS got cancelled in TISS. 
Exclusionary steps may force students from socio-economically marginalized communities to give up  education
High hostel prices and limited student aid has over the years led to a reduction in the number of SC, ST students on the campus. We are told, to our anguish that, as of now, there are only 26 students in the Hyderabad campus that study through GOI-PMS. The burden of the fund cuts of the institute is being shifted on the students from marginalized communities and this is certainly not in keeping with our constitutional spirit. This is a slow death of public higher education, where education is becoming a commodity only a few can afford.
In the past decade, we have been witness to protests by students as well as progressive faculty across the country trying to resist attempts of the state from withdrawal of higher education and during these years TISS was an institute that many of us ‘looked up to’ for upholding a certain degree of social commitment.
However, of late, the direction of the Institute has been quite disturbing and with this turn of events in Hyderabad the glorious history of TISS working as an institution to promote social justice values providing equitable access to education has been dented further. 
We also wish to state emphatically that campus issues need to be resolved amicably by the administration, faculty and students and nothing can justify calling in the police to deal with peaceful protests. The sine die closure order, asking all the students to vacate the campus by 5 pm, reflects badly on the institution which is unable to address the issue and rather affecting the education of all other students.
We earnestly appeal to administration, faculty and students to engage in another round of constructive dialogue and amicably resolve the matter. Given the power hierarchy, the administration clearly has a greater role in this context.
We stand in solidarity with the student community at this moment in their struggle to uphold ideals of social justice and their right to seek accessible, quality education with safety and dignity. It pains us to state that the approach of a) not engaging adequately and comprehensively with the student’s demands and b) unilaterally shutting down the Hyderabad centre, does not behove an institution of the nature and statue of TISS. In the light of the above, we call upon you to immediately:
  • Revoke the administrative order to close the Hyderabad Centre of TISS of sine die.
  • Take necessary steps to ensure that Dalit, Adivasi and other students from marginalized and Bahujan backgrounds have access to hostels and other amenities. 
  • Ensure proper medical support to students who have been on hunger strike for the past three days. 
We look forward to immediate response and action from you in the interests of the students and justice.

Comments

TRENDING

Junk food push causing severe public health crisis of obesity, diabetes in India: Report

By Rajiv Shah  A new report , “The Junk Push: Rising Consumption of Ultra-processed foods in India- Policy, Politics and Reality”, public health experts, consumers groups, lawyers, youth and patient groups, has called upon the Government of India to check the soaring consumption of High Fat Sugar or Salt (HFSS) foods or ultra-processed foods (UPF), popularly called junk food.

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Astonishing? Violating its own policy, Barclays 'refinanced' Adani Group's $8 billion bonds

By Rajiv Shah  A new report released by two global NGOs, BankTrack and the Toxic Bonds Network, has claimed to have come up with “a disquieting truth”: that Barclays, a financial heavyweight with a “controversial” track record, is deeply entrenched in a “disturbing” alliance with “the Indian conglomerate and coal miner Adani Group.”

Modi govt intimidating US citizens critical of abuses in India: NY Christian group to Biden

Counterview Desk  the New York Council of Churches for its release of an open letter calling on the Biden administration to “speak out forcefully” against rising Hindu extremist violence targeting Christians and other minorities in India. In the letter addressed to President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other major elected officials, the NY Council of Churches expressed "grave concern regarding escalating anti-Christian violence" throughout India, particularly in Manipur, where predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo tribals have faced hundreds of violent attacks on their villages, churches, and homes at the hands of predominantly Hindu Meitei mobs.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Link India's 'deteriorating' religious conditions with trade relations: US policymakers told

By Our Representative  Commissioners on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) raised concerns about the “sophisticated, systematic persecution” of religious minorities by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a hearing on India in Washington DC.

Green revolution "not sustainable", Bt cotton a failure in India: MS Swaminathan

MS Swaminathan Counterview Desk In a recent paper in the journal “Current Science”, distinguished scientist PC Kesaven and his colleague MS Swaminathan, widely regarded as the father of the Green Revolution, have argued that Bt insecticidal cotton, widely regarded as the continuation of the Green Revolution, has been a failure in India and has not provided livelihood security for mainly resource-poor, small and marginal farmers. Sharply taking on Green Revolution, the authors say, it has not been sustainable largely because of adverse environmental and social impacts, insisting on the need to move away from the simplistic output-yield paradigm that dominates much thinking. Seeking to address the concerns about local food security and sovereignty as well as on-farm and off-farm social and ecological issues associated with the Green Revolution, they argue in favour of what they call sustainable ‘Evergreen Revolution’, based on a ‘systems approach’ and ‘ecoagriculture’. Pointing ou

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Jharkhand: Attempt to create red scare for 'brutal crackdown', increase loot of resources

Counterview Desk  The civil rights group Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization in a statement on plans to crackdown on “64 democratic progressive organisations” in Jharkhand under the pretext of the need to investigate their Maoist link, has alleged that this an attempt to suppress dissent against corporate loot and create an authoritarian state.