Why AISA Is On Hunger Strike??

(Text From AISA Leaflet)

Wave of Fees Hike in Delhi University

The student community is in a state of shock and outrage over the unprecedented fee hike that has been introduced in Delhi University at the U.G., P.G. and research levels in recent days. Some examples:

* In the History honors, the examination fee has increased from Rs.225 to Rs.510 in this academic year, with similar increases in other subjects.

*At PG level, the examination fees in humanities courses has been hiked from Rs.400 to Rs.1300-1700

*For revaluation and improvement, fees have been increased more than 100%

*In UG hostels like Hansraj, fee has been hiked by Rs.12,000 in this academic year.

*The monthly electricity bill of PG hostels has been increased from Rs.200 to 400

Such fee hikes, which will make it increasingly difficult for common students to avail of quality education in DU, are however not restricted to DU alone. They are part of the larger agenda of "educational reforms" which the new UPA government has been enthusiastically pushing since the day of its inception. The slogan of "reform", as we all know, is nothing but a euphemism to commercialise and privatise higher education, with a target to make it a privilege available only to a few.

The recent circular from the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) dated September 12th 2009, titled "Expenditure Management - Economy Measures and Rationalization of Expenditure", is yet another assault on student rights and the very idea of an affordable and quality education. In the name of 'austerity', this circular directs universities to cut their non-planned expenditure by 10%. At the same time, the UGC of already speaking of a 55% cut in such expenditure. Central universities have been asked by the UPA government to meet these costs by levying user charges for basic facilities like electricity, water, computers, library and laboratories, by a steep increase in fees and by a withdrawal of hostel subsidies.

The Bogey of 'Austerity'

To all those who are today preaching the virtues of "austerity" to the country, we would like to reiterate that education is NOT an extravaganza like staying in 5-star hotels like Mauraya Sheraton and the Taj. It is a basic, fundamental right of each and every citizen of the country. The education sector is by no stretch of imagination swimming in funds and prone to unnecessary extravaganza. Let us have a look at some hard facts:

While defence gets a whopping 16.3% of the total budgetary allocation, higher education is handed a pittance of a mere 1.5%. The fact of the matter is that higher education's share of the Union Budget, which is currently 1.5% has never exceeded 1.6%

The number of people able to access higher education is abysmally low - the gross enrollment ratio in higher education in India hovers around 10% as opposed to the global average of approximately 26%.

The per-student annual expenditure on higher education in India is one of the lowest in the world, far lower than China, Indonesia and Philippines. Excluding inflation, even today the government of India's per student expenditure is not more than Rs.7500 (on the 1990-91 price rate)

India's expenditure on education in India, as a ratio of GDP, is one of the lowest in the world - with only Zambia and Pakistan faring worse.

The hollowness of the Congress's "austerity" drive has been further exposed by the fact that such fund cuts in education are being pushed in the name of "lack of resources", while UPA is busy dolling out sops to super-rich corporations to the tune of Rs.30 crores per hour. Clearly, the slogan for exercising "austerity" in education is nothing but an ideological and political move to turn every institution of higher learning into an exclusive enclave of the rich and the privileged.

The IMF-World Bank dictated ideological agenda has been peddled for quite some time now by various committees like the Knowledge Commission, the Yashpal Committee recommendations, or Kapil Sibal's 100-day agenda of reforms - though it was clocked in rosy words. The latest MHRD directive however has let cat out of the bag. The aam aadmi mask has completely slipped off and Manmohan Singh, Montek Ahluwalia and Kapil Sibal's real agenda of pushing anti-student and anti-poor policies in education is out in the open.

Need For Concerted Struggle

AISA recognizes the need to mount a concerted struggle against the entire project of reforms and commercialization of education undertaken by the UPA government, at the behest of the World Bank and the IMF. At the start of this academic session, AISA led the student's struggle in a month long campaign (10th July - 7th August, 2009) to expose the farcical Right to Education Bill and launched numerous protests in DU and other universities.

It is the result of the student's struggle led by AISA that has checked the attempts of the administration to hike fee in JNU over the last 15 years. The AISA-led JNUSU has once again taken the leading initiative and lodged a massive protest on 8th October outside the MHRD office against the latest anti-student, anti-education, anti-poor  circular. At this critical historical juncture, it is important for us to unite with progressive students groups in campuses across the country in our struggle to resist this potentially fatal onslaught of privatization and commercialization on our education.

The DUSU led by ABVP and NSUI, which has consistently failed in its pricipal duty to protect the interests of students, is completely silent on this issue as well. Their indifference and failure to oppose such anti-student policies is a shameful reality. Their stand should however not come as a surprise to the student community, who have NEVER seen these organizations mobilise the student community on genuine student demands be it scholarships, hostels or fellowships for needy students. Their stand in favour of the neo-liberal agenda of commercialisation of education is a reiteration of their fundamental opposition to the very idea of a university that stands for critical analysis and research, that keeps its doors open to students from all sections of society.

AISA condemns in no uncertain terms the calibrated move of the government of starving universities of funds and pushing commercialization. We call for mass hunger strike on 27th-28th October 2009, demanding roll back of hike in examination fees and increased utility charges. We appeal to students, teachers and all progressive members of the university to join the mass hunger strike in solidarity with the struggle for a democratic campus and the genuine right to education.

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