By Daisy Katta, TwoCircles.net
The strike in Tata Institute Of Social Sciences called by the students of all the four campuses has entered day 4 as the Demand charter put forth by the students of TISS demanding fee waiver and financial aid for SC ST OBC students has not been fully agreed to by the administration. The students had demanded an open Public discussion regarding this issue, but the administration demanded that the administration will only speak to the delegate team to deliberate ever the issue. After a long meeting with the senior administration, the only one demand verbally agreed to was the fee waiver for ST/SC students of batch 2016-18. The demands put forward for a fee waiver for the 2017-19 batch and the OBC (NC) students have not been agreed to. The students’ body declared their dissatisfaction with the discussion with the administration and the TISS student strike is set to continue.
Meanwhile, the Registrar of the institute shared a circular saying that the institute has gone over and above their required mandate to provide fee exception, again repeating that after the Direct Bank Transfer scheme for scholarship, the students have to ask the government for the scholarship money. This circular ignores the fact that there is an overall cut in the post matric scholarship, and the high fees of TISS cannot match the scholarship amount. In a response to this circular, the Students Union stressed…in public universities across India and central universities, the charges for Dining Hall and Hostel are incomparably smaller than the fees in TISS, and the sharp manner in which it has been increased in the past three years. From a total of Rs 18000 (12k Dining fee and 6k for Hostel fee) in 2013-14 these two heads now amount in 2016-17 to RS 31000 (16k +15k). At the same time, it is to be noted that the Dining Hall Fee is a deposit fee. Students are charged as per their consumption and this amount is adjusted to their actual costs. In other universities (take for example HCU), GoI-PMS students are given a waiver on the Dining Hall deposit amount (it only amounts to Rs 5000 in these universities).
In response to the administration’s charge that the students who receive the PMS amount do not pay back the amount to institute, they argued that that the scholarship received from states vary from Rs. 7,000 in Karnataka to 50,000 per year for OBC students in Kerala, the same variation is there for SC and ST PMS.
Amidst rumours that there is a complete blockade at the TISS main gate, the students’ body has clarified that the gate blockade is for senior administration and faculty only. Students body have clarified that none of the essential daily activities will be affected and it’s only the senior administration which is being blocked at the entry to protest.
Meanwhile, Birsa Phule Ambedkar Students Association- JNU, Mumbai University, Hyderabad Central University Students Union, Delhi University, Gujarat Central University, Jamia Millia Islamia have expressed solidarity with the TISS strike. The SC-ST Welfare Association and the TISS Teachers Association have also come in support of the TISS students strike and have written a strong letter of support to administration. Rashtriya Adhikar Dalit Manch has also come out in support of the issue. By evening, the TISS Teacher’s Association members also addressed the students gathering in support of the issues raised.