TISS strike: Protest escalates, students go on indefinite hunger strike

The ongoing protests across four campuses of TISS have escalated, with six students from the Hyderabad campus going on an indefinite hunger strike on Tuesday.

Students at the institute in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Tuljapur have been agitating since February 21 against the administration’s decision to withdraw financial aid to students from the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class communities, who are eligible for the Government of India Pre-Matric Scholarship (GoI-PMS).

“We won’t call off the strike until our demands are met,” said Bibin Thomas, a student from the Hyderabad campus.

Meanwhile, students from the Mumbai campus have blocked the administration building demanding that the registrar go to Hyderabad to address their concerns.

Apart from the faculty and alumnus extending support to the cause, students from JNU, Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University also marched to the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) on Monday and submitted a memorandum to show solidarity with the protesting students in TISS.

Following the protest, the university administration agreed to exempt SC/ST students of the 2016-18 batch from paying hostel and dining hall fees. However, the students have rejected the offer and said they have not been exempted but asked to pay later.

“We are working to find resources and hope they will be in a position to provide further subsidisation for the coming batches,” said the deputy director of Tuljapur campus, Abdul Shaban.