IIT Bombay Fee Hike: Students threaten hunger strike if demands not met by August 5

NEW DELHI: Students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay have decided to go on a hunger strike if the institute does not roll back fee hike decisions by August 5. IIT Bombay students have been protesting against the fee hike citing several loopholes in the decision and additional “financial burden” on students.

“In the all-team meeting of the IIT Bombay Students Against Fee Hike, held on 28th July, it was decided that the students will start a Hunger Strike if the key demands are not fulfilled by the administration by 5th August 2022,” a statement read.

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“The recent fee hike decision by the IIT Bombay administration imposes a compounded burden of years of fee hike on the students. Considering that many of the students are yet to come out of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic (as even the global economy is), and they are having to cope with the steepening inflation, the decision of compounded fee hike was extremely inconsiderate towards the students,” it said.

The key demands put forward by the students of IIT Bombay are:

• An immediate revocation of the recent fee hike decision taken by the Standing Committee for Student Fee Matters. A complete roll back of the fee hike.
• Revocation of the said Board Of Governors resolution that recommends 5% annual hike in the fees, based on which the fee hike decision was allegedly made.
• Inclusion of Student Representatives in the Standing Committee for Student Fee Matters.

Students protest against IIT Bombay fee hike

Condemning the decision, students said, “The public education system in India has been a very important medium through which we have been able to work towards the promise of ensuring Equality of Opportunity, and Social and Economic Justice to all the people of this country, the promise which has been made in the preamble of our constitution. By making education more and more expensive in important public institutions like IITs, we are effectively closing the doors of these institutions on many. We are going further away from the fulfillment of that promise.”