Students’ Action Committee

Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad

Press Release – 10th July 2019

The Students’ Action Committee of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad had
called for a demonstration on 8th July 2019 due to the issues faced by the students
availing GoI Post Matric Scholarship, wherein they were denied hostel
accommodation without the upfront payment of Rs.54,650 for the entire semester.
Subsequently, a brief demand charter was sent to the administration. The demands
included:
The provision for paying Rs.15,000 as accommodation charges in three instalments,
as mentioned in the admission guidelines to be reinstated. For the students who are unable
to pay the dining hall fee immediately to be provided the option to pay off their dues
once they receive the students aid and scholarships. For this, the institute has to
provide an assurance to the service provider which the institute is adamant on not
providing. It is important to state here that while TISS, Hyderabad claims to not
provide hostels, the location, buildings and charges were fixed by the administration
itself; and the tariff details are up on the college website. The administration has also failed to
provide the details of tenders for choosing this
service provider.
In addition to this hypocritical behavior, the administration’s response has been extremely
vague and unsatisfying, even after
several mail correspondence and meetings. Since the administration refused to
assure the payment of hostel fees on behalf of the GoI PMS students, the larger
student community has taken up a signature campaign to stand as guarantors that the
dues will be paid once the students aid is disbursed. The administration has not
acceded to our request even after this. A meeting with the service provider was
scheduled by the administration for 10th July but no confirmation of the same has
come so far.
Around 3 PM today a meeting with the chairperson of the EOC was held in which supposedly
only GoI-PMS students were to be present, for which reason the non GoI-PMS students were
not allowed to ask any questions. The chairperson, however, was accompanied by a few other
admin members. Throughout the meeting, the GoI-PMS students were only asked if they had
applied for scholarships and/or student aid, and if their applications had been accepted. After
which, they were asked in very black and white terms if they “wanted” to stay in the hostels
based on the status of their respective scholarship or student aid applications. Not only was the
meeting humiliating and intimidating, the failure of the institute and the students’ inability to pay
for the hostels was framed as their unwillingness to stay in the hostel.
Additionally, the condition of the hostels is so poor that 20 students have been diagnosed with
food
poisoning over these last few days and four students are admitted in the hospital currently. The
reason for the same are unhygienic food and contaminated water.
A meeting to address these grievances was scheduled with a member of the admin; which
when held after a significant delay, ended with him listening to our complaints for three minutes,
suggesting that he has meals with us in the hostel as a “solution” and walking out even as
students were still speaking.
The Hyderabad campus also violates multiple UGC guidelines and the students intend to
take the legal recourse in this regard.
Since the administration refuses to take accountability and adequately address the
concerns of the students, the campus continues to be on lockdown. The student
community is deeply infuriated by the insensitive and ignorant attitude of the administration and
will continue the protests until satisfactory solutions are provided.