IIMC Protest: Students Call Off Agitation For Now As Administration Gives Verbal Assurance

After protesting for 5 days and braving the bitter cold and rains of Delhi, students of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) have got verbal assurance from the administration to get access to various facilities at the campus. They have decided to suspend the protest for now.

Today, a students' delegation had a meeting with the institute's Additional Director General Ashish Goyal, Dean (Acedaemics) Prof. Govind Singh, and Dean (Students' Welfare) Prof. Pramod Saini.

In the meeting, the students are given verbal assurance that girls, who have come to Delhi, will be given accommodation on the campus. Also, the institute will work to give access to library and lab facilities to the students as soon as possible. However, demand for fee concession has not been acknowledged.

Among other demands, the students were asking for access to the hostel, library, and labs of the institute as these were not accessible as the campus was closed since the start of the session. Of the 10-month journalism course, 3 months have passed taking online classes. The online mode, however, will continue for now but other facilities will be available to the students.

A member of the students' delegation, Brijesh Singh told that the protest has been called off for now. "We have asked the administration to give written assurance as soon as possible. If they don't comply with what they have said then we will plan the future course of action accordingly."

It was for the third year in a row that the students of the institute were agitating against the administration. The institute had decided to open the campus from 3 January 2022 but deferred the date to 17th January. As per the institute's circular dated 24 December, the decision was taken "in view of the situation arising out of an increase in cases of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19".

Hence, the students were on a dharna since 25 December. They were demanding access to various facilities at the campus. The protesting students were arguing that they had consent letters from their parents, still, the administration was reluctant to open the campus. "In the adjacent campus of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), there are a lot more students availing the hostel facility since October. But we are a few hundred and still deprived of the facility", read a press release issued by the students earlier.

The institute, considered one of the top J-schools in India, had started online classes from 7th October this year for the 2021-22 session. At that time also, the students had requested the authorities to start offline classes instead.

"For almost 2 months, we were being repeatedly assured by the faculties that the campus would be opened soon. Finally, they released the notification for offline classes on 8th December. But in the name of the new variant, the date was extended to 17 January", a student told.

In an earlier conversation, Brijesh had argued that they had paid the full fee of the course then why can't they access the facilities.

The institute has seen protests in 2019 and 2020 over the issue of the exorbitant fee charged by the institute and online classes, respectively. Currently, the maximum fee is paid by the students of Radio and TV (RTV) which is Rs 1,68,500 for one year of the post-graduate diploma course. The fee for the Advertisement and Public Relations (ADPR) course is Rs 1,31,500. Students of Hindi and English Journalism pay Rs 95,500 while the fees for courses in regional languages are Rs 55,500.

After the 8 December notice, regarding the start of offline classes from 3 January 2022, many students started to shift to Delhi. They were told that only girls would be getting to the hostel facility to maintain covid protocols. So boys started to live in nearby places.

"Many of us are living in Ber Sarai (an area near to the IIMC campus) for about a month. We are not getting good food there, our living conditions are also poor. The place is so congested that we don't even get to see sunlight for days. But we were living in this condition just in the hope of offline classes. Hence, we demand to open the campus on 3rd January", a protesting student had said earlier.

After the campus opening date got deferred to 17 January, while some students had to cancel their plans, others were left stranded. Nandini S, a student of IIMC and living in a rented accommodation currently, said that her prime concern was getting accommodation in Delhi.

When asked about the assurance of the IIMC administration, she said, "My biggest concern was of stay in Delhi. And only recently I had a jaundice attack which was bad. And getting a place in Delhi that was safe and hygienic was a rarity. So my parents were really worried when the reopening was postponed. I'm relieved that the authorities have listened to the worries and have agreed to open hostels."

She further adds, "For the time being this is a relief. I really hope the administration takes necessary action with regard to the other concerns as well. For now, I plan to move into the hostel. Will see what happens if the third wave comes. Right now the prime concern was stay."

This was the third year in a row that the students of the institute had to protest against the administration. During the 2019-20 batch, the students had protested against a fee hike after the nearby JNU students had protested for the same.

The next year, during the 2020-21 session, the students protested on the same line as this year. They wanted to have offline classes and a fee concession, for which they protested in the bitter cold of Delhi, just like the current batch of students.