We have had an earlier post on the University Community for Democracy which was formed in the wake of the arbitrary and authoritarian eviction of students from the hostels of Delhi University for the Commonwealth Games, but which raises wider questions about the “reckless logic by which the city is being re-made”.

This is their latest press release, followed by their letter to the National Commission for Women.

University Community for Democracy

PRESS RELEASE 10/08/10

The University Community for Democracy is initiating a RELAY HUNGER STRIKE FROM  9 AM TO 9 PM, 12TH AUGUST THURSDAY ONWARDS at the Arts Faculty Main gate, North Campus. Each day there will be five people (teachers, students and researchers) who will be on a hunger strike, as well as many others who will sit in solidarity.

The University Community for Democracy has been challenging a number of decisions taken by both Delhi University and the government with regard to the commonwealth games for over a month now. The Forum is deeply concerned by the gross violations of rights that the city has witnessed in the name of the Games and condemns the irresponsible manner in which Delhi is being prepared for this mega- event.

Delhi University, in the middle of a semester finds itself at the heart if the CWG frenzy and as members of the university community we have come together to voice our dissent. One of the issues taken up by UCD is the eviction of students from hostels and the unbridled rise of rent rates all around the university. This has made housing unaffordable not only for students but all those who have been residing in these areas all along. The decision to accept 20 crores and to evict students was absolutely undemocratic and no heed was paid to the plight of students. We demand that the university take responsibility for it students by providing alternative accommodation, regulating rents and also subsidizing hostel fees the following year.

UCD has submitted a petition to the National Commission for Women as the university is turning a blind eye to all the women students who have been evicted and for whom safety is a real issue. There are many practical difficulties that these women students are being forced to endure while having to negotiate their way around in a city that records an alarming number of cases involving sexual violence on women every day. The Dean of colleges has said on record that that the university administration can do nothing in effect and that the University is not responsible for this decision.

We fight this battle with the university (which includes the colleges) while being fully aware that what we are being subjected to in the University is a direct outcome of the same reckless logic by which the rest of the city is being re-made.

Contact: cwgresistance@gmail.com, Bonojit Hussain: 9873374945, Kavya Murthy: 9312806280

Facebook : Resist Forced Eviction of Students in the name of Commonwealth Games

Letter to National Commission for  Women by UCD

We are writing to you with a deep sense of urgency and concern about the plight of approximately five hundred undergraduate women students currently residing in the college hostels of the North Campus, Delhi University. Owing to the preparations and renovations required for the Commonwealth Games imminent in October 2010, students from Ramjas College, Miranda House, Daulat Ram College, Hansarj College and Kirori Mal College have been evicted from their hostel-rooms for a minimum period of three months between July and October, without proper information and notice. Many of these students are women who are left with no choice but to shift to exorbitantly priced PG accommodation around the University area.

You will be only too aware of the practical difficulties that these women students are being forced to endure while having to negotiate their way around in a city that records an alarming number of cases involving sexual violence on women every day. Moreover, the scant experience of this city makes these young women students even more vulnerable to various forms of exploitation. The University and College authorities have been strangely indifferent and apathetic to this pressing situation and have left the students to fend for themselves. With the exception of Daulat Ram College, where a seminar room is being turned into a makeshift dormitory with grossly inadequate living facilities, the other colleges have refused to come up with any alternative to this forced predicament.

On behalf of these despairing students who may well add up to the human cost of the CWG 2010, we, the students and teachers of Delhi University urge you to intervene and appeal for a stay on these forced evictions. We hope to get your response on this matter soon as there is little time to lose.