Bathroom in balcony, study table for Rs 2,000: Delhi students pay a heavy price for their education

NEW DELHI: A bathroom in the balcony, a tin shed on the rooftop of a five-storey building with no lifts, a room where every inch counts and paying extra even for a plastic study table-students who come to Delhi hoping to build their futures say they are "rotting" in spaces that feel like a prison, not home.

The national capital is home to some of the country's most sought-after institutions, but getting admission is only the beginning. In Mukherjee Nagar and Kamla Nagar around North Campus, the IAS coaching hubs of Old Rajinder Nagar, Satya Niketan and Moti Bagh near South Campus, and the CA and CS coaching hub of Laxmi Nagar, students are living in cramped rooms and PGs, far from what they had imagined when they came to Delhi.

Students endure them only to save money and ease the financial burden on their parents. A spotcheck by PTI across the capital's major student hubs following the tragic death of seven students in the Satya Niketan building collapse revealed a grim reality behind the city's promise of top-tier education. In a Mukherjee Nagar PG, a room being prepared for the next batch had almost no space beyond a bed.

A tiny sink and toilet pot sat in the balcony. "The bathroom could not be made inside because the space meant for it is occupied by a temple in the home of the family living on the floor below," a broker said. Elsewhere, a room measured barely 6-7 ft by 4-5 ft, while another had a cardboard partition where a wall should have been.

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Brokers disappear after taking advance money: Students

In rooms meant for 2-3 students, beds, racks, tables, books and clothes left little space to move. "An attached bathroom can cost you Rs 5,000 or Rs 6,000 more. So most of us compromise and take a room where one small bathroom is shared by two or three rooms," a student living in Satya Niketan said.

Rooms can cost Rs 6,000 without food and Rs 12,000-Rs 13,000 with food, with another Rs 2,500 for a tiffin service and electricity charged separately. Students said old furniture and second-hand appliances add to the discomfort and sometimes the electricity bill. Students said they pay Rs 1,500-Rs 2,000 for an additional study table, sometimes receiving a plastic one.

"Imagine staying here for years for IAS coaching or university and having to pay separately for something as basic as a place to sit and study. When you add that to the rent, electricity charges and all the other extra costs, the amount becomes quite a lot for a student," said Ritik, an IAS aspirant said.

In Old Rajinder Nagar, students said brokers sometimes take advance payments promising to arrange rooms and then disappear. "My roommate lost Rs 10,000 to a broker. They ask for Rs 10,000 or Rs 12,000 as advance money, saying they will arrange a room, and then suddenly they disappear," a student from Lucknow said.

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'Online images of rooms completely different from reality'

"The worst part is that students are desperate. We have classes, exams and coaching to worry about, and brokers know that we don't have much time to keep searching," he said. Online listings can also paint a different picture. A student in Moti Bagh said photographs often show clean, well-lit rooms that look very different when students arrive.

"We see these places online and they look so nice in the pictures. You see a clean room, good lighting, a decent building and you think, okay, maybe this is where I can stay. But when you come here and you are desperate for a room, you don't always have the luxury of walking away," the student said. In Laxmi Nagar, a student preparing for CA and CS examinations said she has been living under a tin shed on the rooftop of a five-storey building since last year.

"By afternoon, the room becomes so hot that the AC has to be switched on almost immediately. My electricity bill can reach Rs 5,000 a month in summer, even though much of my day is spent at coaching classes or the library," she said. An ordinary rainy day often adds to the inconvenience.

"After rain, narrow lanes around the PGs can fill with stagnant water and mud, turning the route to college, coaching centres and libraries into a daily struggle. Inside, thin walls carry conversations from one room into another, leaving students with little privacy even when they shut their doors," said 22-year-old Austin from Kamla Nagar. He is a Master's student at St Stephen's College.

"From outside, some of these buildings look freshly painted and perfectly fine, but you wonder what is happening inside the walls. They look pretty from the outside, but many of them feel like they are slowly rotting from within," she said. Safety concerns are particularly stark in buildings where commercial establishments operate below student accommodation.

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DU student shares dangerous encounter with spark while hanging clothes in balcony

"Some of these hostels have sweet shops and chaat shops on the ground floor, and the cooking fire is running almost throughout the day. Above them, you have students living in extremely congested rooms. There are wires everywhere, narrow staircases, narrow corridors and basements that are not properly cleared. There aren't proper entry and exit points," a Bihar student preparing for IAS examinations said.

"If a fire starts in one of these shops and catches onto the building, where are we supposed to go? There are so many people packed into these buildings that even one accident could put everyone at risk," he said.

For 19-year-old Akanksha, a student at Daulat Ram College, the danger came from an electric pole beside her PG. She said a spark in May lasted 10-12 minutes and set clothes hanging in the balcony on fire. For women, the concern extends beyond the building. An 18-year-old student in Satya Niketan said poorly lit, narrow lanes become particularly uncomfortable after dark.

"At night, it becomes a completely different place. There isn't enough lighting, and you don't know who is standing around the corner. As a girl living here, you become very conscious of your surroundings the moment the sun goes down. You just want to reach your PG quickly and get inside," Shweta said.

Calling their rooms a refuge after hours of daily hustle, students said clean, affordable and safe housing was a basic right, particularly for those who would shape the country's future, and urged authorities to address what they described as an "exploitative PG crisis" in the capital.