The eruption of the students’ agitation in the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) has somehow spread a false perception regarding the reason behind the protest. The protest that began on Tuesday is a culmination of a series of events that have been unfolding in the institute for the past few months. Despite our persistent requests for a dialogue on several issues such as basic living conditions, academics, faculty and syllabus, no positive step was taken by the authorities, who have been very conveniently shying away from all responsibility towards the students.

However, director Debamitra Mitra was adamant on imposing one rule that is segregating hostels based on gender which the students principally opposed because we believe that it comes from a highly sexist ideology as it completely disregards the very existence of people and reduces them to male and female identities, also it is a misogynist thing to do. But what the administration has been telling the outside world is that male and female students in SRFTI want to live together and that is why we are protesting.

It is true that this arbitrary decision to expel 14 female students who protested against the segregation of hostels has triggered the protest in SRFTI, but this is just one of the many reasons of this protest as our letter has stated. After many failed attempts, the students were left with no choice but to express their dissent by walking out of classes and mobilising themselves expecting that the authority will come for a conversation regarding the numerous issues. When students occupied the paths to the director’s and other administrative staff’s offices, Mitra was forced to address the students. But, as opposed to our expectation, instead of listening to the issues, the director shouted: “You don’t talk at all! You remember, you can’t talk.”

This is a clear example of how the institute has turned into a highly undemocratic space. “The administration has stooped to that level where they are not providing basic amenities and coming up with draconian rules every other day and threaten students constantly with expulsion from the institute, calling police into the campus and imposing fines. We can no longer bear this highly exploitative face of the administration,” said Akshay Gauri, the students’ union president.

Below is the list of demands that we have been raising for months.

1. Living conditions are horrendous inside the institute. A separate letter was given to the institute last week containing all details of things required to be done.

*The food that is available in the hostel mess is extremely poor quality because the monthly subsidiary allowance provided by the institute to the mess caterers is laughable. We have demanded an increase in this sum for over two years and nothing has been done so far. The food not only makes students fall ill, but also create stomach-related issues and several students have fallen prey to jaundice over the past few months.

*Extremely damp rooms and corridors that have led to several respiratory ailments over time.

*Unavailability of potable water.

*Extremely poor washroom conditions.

*Malfunctioning electrical equipment.

*Broken furniture as well as inadequate furniture.

2. Fee hike and imposition of high monetary fine for shortfall in attendance (This implies that students who come from financially sound environment can secure attendance, which is outrageous!) The system is enabling people to buy attendance.

3. Academic projects being cut and modified making learning outcomes weak. For instance, the very vital Playback project which has been removed from the curriculum altogether and modification of the 4th semester Short Fiction Film project to a project to be shot on locations, which previously was the only project where all students get to work in a studio environment.

4. No increase in academic budget over six years, disregarding inflation; and on top it all, the fees are being considerably hiked in every batch.

5. Tie-ups with industry professional and production houses for work is almost nil, a placement cell needs to be set up.

6. The prop, costumes, art and furniture departments are in a very bad condition. The same things are being reused since the last decade or more. Any instance of parallel shooting leads to complete chaos due to lack of inadequate resources.

7. The TV course has been started even when there are not enough classrooms for them. Despite all the above inadequacies, new courses have been started with the same amount of resource (faculty, set, hostel).

8. Students Welfare Centre needs to be set up.

9. Lack of Faculty must be looked at very seriously and more faculty should be appointed. (Some faculty are not willing to take classes at all. The teachers either come late or postpone classes. Faculties of film course have been shifted to TV course which may affect the outcome).

10. Major corruption is going on the campus that needs to be dealt in an immediate manner (instances of building a decorative wall with a huge sum of money near the administration building in spite of having malfunctioning studios and equipment. Faculty members use institute’s equipment as their own in their personal studios)

11. The absolute mismanagement of syllabus due to poor planning and lack of interdepartmental coordination must be stopped.

12. The students are not allowed to bring in assistants, actors or any other people who might assist us in our creative endeavours and projects and have them stay over with us for our project-related discussions. This affects the ethos of the film institute on the whole.

The students also demand that the female and male students who have been expelled permanently from the hostel and academics, without a chance of dialogue, be reinstated. “We do not accept such dictatorial decisions of this regime. We feel this is taking away an individual’s right to show dissent, the very basis of democracy. We want to create an environment where there is peaceful and cordial coexistence of all genders. We want everyone in this institute to be sensitive towards gender other than their own. We stand against moral policing and gender discrimination of the highest order,” said Gauri.

Apart from all this, segregation of hostels on gender grounds will lead to several rooms remaining unoccupied in the new girl’s hostel given the fact that there is a huge disparity in the number of girls and boys as a good number of boys will be left in the old hostels. “We demand that the new batch be accommodated first (not having done so effectively thus far, over a period of two months, is already a massive failure on the part of the administration), and only then should such things be brought up,” said Pulkit Philip, a student.

“We cannot allow such an authoritarian and dictatorial attitude from the institute by completely exploiting the students and totally ignoring their welfare. We want the administration to take the expelled students back and the police force has to be removed from the campus,” added Philip. Until they meet their demands, the students have decided to go forward with the strike.