IIT-B logs on to protest against hostel conditions

It’s exam fever at the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay (IITB). But students have been taking the time to upload pictures ranging from a bull sitting inside a hostel room to rooms without fans.

It’s exam fever at the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay (IITB). But students have been taking the time to upload pictures ranging from a bull sitting inside a hostel room to rooms without fans.

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Protesting against the poor infrastructure in the hostels in the virtual world is the ‘GiveUp’ team, a group of anonymous IITB students that created a Facebook community ‘Give up @ IITB’ in August. Today, the community created by hostelites studying at IITB since 2010 has 500 fans.

The team has claimed that they are not against the institution. “But our love (for the institution) does not protect us from the insects that welcome us into our new rooms. Our love does not fill our stomachs when the mess just refuses to provide us with remotely good food,” reads the community page. It adds, “Our love definitely does not better our living conditions, ranging from rooms without ceiling fans, falling balconies and a human to toilet ratio of 1:14.”

According to the team, the objective of the community is to garner support for a normal life and feel these posts will provoke people with responsibility to provide students with the bare necessities.

“I have not seen the Facebook page yet. But if students are so agitated we will look into the matter immediately,” said UA Yagnik, the dean of students’ affairs at IIT B. “In the last three years, students in the campus have doubled and today we have more than 7,000 students. There is a shortage of infrastructure facilities but new hostels and canteens will reduce the complaints of students by mid 2013.”