By Ila Ananya
Women from farmer and labourer families who are studying at MR Government College in Fazilka, Punjab, have been protesting against a huge fee hike that could potentially affect almost 2,000 of the 3,000 students studying there. They reportedly burnt an effigy of the vice-chancellor, held a protest march at the DC’s office, followed by a candlelight march.
Divya Goyal reported for The Indian Express that more than half the students at MR Government College are women, and around 2,000 students have refused to pay the hiked fees. Despite consistently arguing that they cannot afford to pay the fees because their families cannot afford it, the college has now also further said that the examination fees will be hiked by 30 percent: The fee which was once Rs 1,500 has now been increased to Rs 2,500.
Many women students who Goyal spoke to said they could not ask their parents for an additional Rs 1,000. “Rs 1,000 might not be a big amount for rich students but Punjab University is forgetting that this border belt is not home to rich students. It’s a big thing that our parents have agreed to send us to college. We might be told to leave studies if we tell our parents to arrange for Rs 1,000 more,” Shweta, who comes from a farmer family reportedly said.
This story also seems to fit into a larger pattern of students, particularly those who come from lower class families, whose access to education is restricted by hiking fees. In Bihar, Shreya Roy Chowdhury recently reported for Scroll.in that a scholarship scam forced many Dalit students to drop out of college. After the students protested, the Central Bureau of Investigation was asked to look into the matter of these large sums of scholarship money disappearing because they were being paid to fictitious institutions.
Each of these cases is telling of this larger pattern of students being forced to discontinue their education because of money, putting education out of the reach of marginalised students. In the Fazilka case, considering that it is happening in a small college, there is the worry that none of these problems will be addressed. The central government has repeatedly claimed to be promoting the education of young girls and women, but this fee hike might obviously do the opposite.