The students of Hindu College of Delhi University staged a protest demonstration outside the administration office on Thursday against the steep hostel fees announced by the administration. The students asked the authorities to revoke discriminatory hostel rules and sought a transparent admission procedure in hostel.

The students submitted a questionnaire to principal Anju Srivastava on Tuesday giving her a 48-hour  deadline to reply. “Since the principal failed to respond, we have decided to take legal recourse,” said Sheethal NS, a second year English honours student. The protesters maintained that they will picket the principal’s office from tomorrow onwards to put pressure on the administration. “We will be sitting outside the principal’s office with posters and banners until we get a response from the administration,” said Ritika Thakur, a Botany student.

While boys hostels charge Rs 47,000 per year, the fee decided for the girls’ hostel comes to around Rs 91,000. Furthermore, unlike the boys hostels, neither a prospectus nor an explanation for the fee structure has been provided in girls’ hostels. The gender bias in imposing curfew was another issue raised in the protest. While both hostels are supposed to follow the 10 pm curfew, the girls’ hostel experiences a far stringent imposition of this whereas the enforcement in the boys hostel is lax, if enforced at all.  “When the principal saw us, she shouted at us saying that we hadn’t informed her about the protest. We had obtained prior police permission for the protest and didn’t feel the need to intimate the people whom we were protesting against,” added Ritika.

Elaborating on the lack of transparency in hostel admissions, Sheethal said, “The first year students were offered seats in the hostel during their admissions and were sent personal mails about the same. But, second and third year students only received informal messages on WhatsApp groups.” Additionally and adding wight to that, Sheethal said, “The official notice for hostel admission was put out on July 20, the first day of this academic year, giving only 48 hours duration to submit hostel applications.”

The protest was organised by the Joint Action Committee (JAC), which was formed on July 31, a group of students who came together to tackle this particular hostel issue. Students from other colleges under DU, including Khalsa College and Indraprastha College, were also present at the protest. “We face similar issues such as unequal fees and discriminatory rules,” said a Khalsa College student on the condition of anonymity. “The annual fee at the girls’ hostel of Khalsa College is Rs 1.60 lakh, and the curfew is 7.30 pm,” she added.