Higher education a distant dream for students from outer Delhi

New Delhi: Vikram Dagar, 24, a resident of Najafgarh’s Issapur village, had to travel at least a 100 kilometres every day for three years to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree from Delhi University’s Deshbandhu College

New Delhi: Vikram Dagar, 24, a resident of Najafgarh’s Issapur village, had to travel at least a 100 kilometres every day for three years to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree from Delhi University’s Deshbandhu College. He is now pursuing his postgraduate degree from DU’s Faculty of Law – over 40 kilometres way.

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“I don’t have time left for myself or engage in self-study. For residents of Najafgarh, the struggle is on two fronts – to get into DU and then find a way to access these colleges,” said Dagar, adding that he used to leave at 6.30 am and return home by 9.30 pm during his undergraduate degree days. “Since my village is at the far-end, even reaching the nearest metro by bus takes over an hour.”

The 24-year-old said that this results in a lot of dropouts. “Colleges often do not offer hostels to those living within a 60-km radius. So, we have no option but to stay at our homes. Not everyone can afford to travel by metro or getting PG accommodations near campus. In the past four years, I have seen so many people drop out for this very reason. If there had been even one government college in Najafgarh, so many dropouts could have been avoided,” he said.

This is a common concern among the community living in outer Delhi areas -- such as Najafgarh, Mundka, Ghumanhera, and Roshanpura – where despite the availability of lands, no government colleges have come up in the recent years, leaving the youth with few options for higher education.

During the Delhi government’s annual budget last month, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said that Delhi has not been able to “make higher education accessible to every child in the last 75 years due to increasing population”. The government said that despite an increase of 36.42% in the seats allotted for higher education and 66.44% in those for technical education, more needs to be done.

Residents of these areas too said that the budget did not focus much on higher education. Jagbir Yadav, 60, a resident of Mundka village, said, “Though it is good that the government is talking about developing a sports university here, some attention has to be given towards regular undergraduate degree courses as well. Students here shift towards ITI or technical courses from private institutes and that does not give them the exposure available to students living in the main city.”

Kartar Singh, general secretary of the Najafgarh Senior Citizens’ Association, said, “A generation was left behind in terms of education and development because there are hardly any colleges here. Those wishing to pursue higher education had to go towards the Haryana side or drop out of colleges. Lack of education and subsequently career opportunities led to some of our youngsters taking the wrong route and becoming outlaws. Else they too could have studied and contributed to development. It would have been good if the annual budget focused more on getting higher education work done.”

Singh said that except Bhagini Nivedita College for women, nearest DU colleges were at least 20 km away and the other option for students residing in the areas is to study in IP university in Dwarka.

The lack of colleges has impacted young women the most. Shiksha Rani, who teaches Political Science in Bhagini Nivedita College, said, “Najafgarh is a big area with around 70 villages under it and this is the only government college in the area for girls. Naturally, it isn’t enough. Families are not willing to let their daughters travel for longer distances to pursue education. So, they are either made to drop out or opt for distance education and since they are at home, parents insist for marriage. This affects women’s education in the area.

In 1989, around 83 bighas of land was allotted to DU in Roshanpura, Najafgarh, to build a campus but the project is yet to start more than 30 years later. In 2019, the Delhi high court had also instructed the university to build the college “as early as possible”, depending on the “availability of budget”. The long-standing issue of creating an approach road to the college – which was one of the reasons for the delay – has been resolved for now, said DU acting vice-chancellor PC Joshi. He also said that university officials will soon visit these areas and start creating “facility centres” for students.

“We have larger plans but for that we need funds which have to be generated in due course of time. We will be writing to central agencies for funds as well. But what we are going to begin with is creating facility centres in north-west, west, and east Delhi soon so that students don’t have to come to north campus for various kinds of work,” Joshi said.

“As far as Roshanpura is concerned, there is a proposal for a college. We recently met the deputy chief minister and discussed this along with other things. The minister said it was a good idea and the Delhi government would help us in it,” he added.

A Delhi government spokesperson said, “Work on the Sports University in Mundka is going on in full swing. Ghumanhera already has a higher education facility like District Institute of Education and Training (DIET). The government is making serious efforts to provide quality education in other areas of outer Delhi. This includes efforts like creating a Skill University as well.”