LSR may keep aside a few hostel rooms for second and third year students on need basis

The announcement comes days after a 19-year-old student from the college, who was reportedly struggling to cope with her online classes, died by suicide in her home town in Telangana on November 2.

Delhi University’s (DU) Lady Shri Ram (LSR) college for women on Monday deferred until further notice the order asking students to vacate their hostel rooms, and said the college administration is considering keeping aside some rooms in its hostel for the second and third-year students on a need basis.

Protests outside the LSR campus after a student of the college died by suicide earlier this month. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

The announcement comes days after a 19-year-old student from the college, who was reportedly struggling to cope with her online classes, died by suicide in her home town in Telangana on November 2. Her parents said that she was stressed as the college had asked second-year hostellers to vacate their rooms by November 10.

In 2019, the college had introduced a policy limiting its hostel to first-year students only. This was done to accommodate students from other backward classes (OBC) and economically weaker section (EWS) categories.

In a notification issued on its website on Monday, the college said, “Current second-year students of LSRC, whose tenure in the hostel finished in May 2020, and whose belongings were safely kept in the hostel free of charge, for five months, were asked to collect their belongings by October 31. Subsequently, the date was extended to November 10 and beyond for several students in genuine need.” .

The college said in view of the rising number of Covid-19 cases and the difficulties expressed by second-year students, the shifting of their belongings from hostel rooms has been postponed until further orders. “The management and administration of the college are looking at how we can help the girls during the pandemic by enhancing accommodation as a short-term arrangement. The process of removal of luggage has also been put on hold until further notice and a notice to this effect is up on the website,” the notification said.

“We are also working on earmarking a few seats for some second and third-year girls to be allotted on the basis of need,” it added.

Unnimaya P, general secretary of LSR students’ union, said, “The students have been demanding a complete revocation of the new hostel policy. Earmarking two or three rooms won’t help all students in need.”

Despite repeated attempts, college principal Suman Sharma did not respond to calls and texts. However, in its notification, the college said, “There was no way in which LSR hostel could continue to be a hostel for three years and also implement OBC reservation. With the hostel envisaged as a first- year hostel only, about 60 girls from the OBC category could be accommodated. Increasing the number of beds in the existing hostel (an old building) or building a new hostel is not immediately possible (lack of funds).

The college administration said implementing the OBC reservations (and subsequently EWS reservations) was the only way to make the hostel more inclusive and less exclusive by providing a cushioning effect to a much larger number of first-year students who needed hostel facilities the most.