By Daisy Katta, TwoCircles.net
Students of one of the premier institutes in India, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), across its four campuses have called for an indefinite TISS Bandh to protest against the Government of India’s Post Matric Scholarship (GoI PMS) issue. The Students Union of TISS has tried to negotiate and resolve the matter with the administration for the past two years but the administration paid no heed to waive off the fees for post matric scholarship holders. As a result, the students have gone ahead with the strike call. This is a campus-wide strike which will entail boycotting classes at all the TISS campuses – Mumbai, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Tuljapur.
The GoI PMS Issue
The TISS administration in a positive social justice measure provided fee exception in all major fee heads to SC, ST and OBC students who were eligible to get the post matric scholarship. This combined with other educational efforts of community and political/social awareness resulted in a democratising campus where there was good strength of Dalit Adivasi Bahujan students. But this took a turn for the worse from 2014 onwards when the fee exception to OBC students was withdrawn combined with almost 45% fee hike in 2015. More than 1,500 SC and ST students (as per 2017 intake) were impacted by the decision of the administration in May 2017 to ask them for the Dining Hall and Hostel payment which amounts to Rs 62,000 per student per semester. The situation for OBC students in Maharashtra is an example that reservation is not enough for retention in institutes that charge high fees like TISS. With the denial of fee exemption for students from OBC category: for Maharashtra in particular number of students in the income bracket of GoI PMS decreased from 65 to only 20 (16 MA and 4 MPhil/PhD scholars) while overall it decreased from 97 to 47. With the start of Direct Bank Transfer, the institute has washed its hands of any responsibility for student welfare, stating that the scholarship is a matter between the individual student and the government. It is also a matter of concern the central government allocation to the PMS has reduced for SC, ST and Minorities this year, a trend that was seen for many years. The institute is asking for full payment of fees even though the GOI PMS holders are still awaiting the scholarship amount.
Students Protest in TISS
With the above situation prevailing which prevented entry and retention of Dalit Bahujan Adivasi students, the Students Union was trying their best to negotiate with the government and the administration for the past one year. A group formed to take the issue forward has been meeting and submitting petitions to the MHRD, Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment and the TISS administration. But, the union and students felt let down by the lack of adequate response from the government and the administration, leading to the infinite strike across four campuses from February 21.
The Students Union has prepared a charter of demands and submitted to Acting Director of TISS Prof Shalini Bharat. The protest began on February 20th in the afternoon and is still on at the Mumbai TISS campus. All classes in Mumbai campus of TISS were boycotted since 7 am yesterday by the students. The protests saw participation by around 500 plus TISS students.
After almost 24 hours after the protests the TISS administration tried to negotiate with the students but failing to give any concrete solution, the students have asked for a written statement from the administration to come up with a solution.The administration has asked for 24 hours to resolve the issue.The Mumbai TISS campus strike continued throughout the night as the student await clarification from the TISS administration.
After stopping the scholarship for OBC students, the percentage of OBC students has come down from 28% to 18%. Many of the students belonging to SC, ST and OBC who are enrolled in the current academic year will not be given degrees if they fail to pay up full fees. Almost 500 students belonging to SC ST OBC category are set to be affected if the issue is not resolved.
The student charter of demands are as follows:
We demand the notification for percent GOI PMS students ( 2016-18 and 2017-19) to pay for fees ( Tuition, Dining Hall and Hostel) to be retracted with immediate effect.
We demand the immediate notification on TISS website to provide via notification a clear laid out path on the financial assistance mechanism for the GOI PMS Students of the upcoming batch of 201-2020.
We demand symbolic Representation of the office of Dean SPO from SC/ST/OBC Category.
A statement released by the TISS Alumni who were earlier negotiating with the GoI PMS issue stated that “we, the alumni of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, offer our support to the call made by the TISS Students Union or a strike on February 21, 2018 against the decisions taken by the institute to deny the fee exemption given to SC,ST and OBC students (including religious minorities) who are eligible for the Government of India Post-Matric Scholarship (GoI-PMS). The fee exemption for students was an institute policy to facilitate access to higher education to students from marginalised communities. But over the years, fees of TISS increased many folds (currently, average fees is around Rs. 70-80,000 per semester) while the policy of affirmative access was curtailed bit by bit. We condemn the move by the administration and management of TISS. The situation has worsened with Government’s policy of increasing privatisation of education and inadequate allocation of funds to provide for access to higher education by students from marginalised communities. The government has been decreasing allocation for GoI PMS schemes and, in particular, withholding significant funds to TISS from the University Grants Commission and Ministry of Human Resource Development.”