The Delhi Room Rent Control Movement is an important egalitarian initiative started by many students of Delhi University. These students have mostly come to the city from remote provincial districts and small towns to acquire a sound education. Even as they have managed to secure admissions in the various colleges and departments of DU through their own merit and hard work, the University has not felt the need to provide them with minimal boarding and lodging facilities and the safety required to pursue higher studies under such trying conditions. Hostel and mess facilities in DU are grossly inadequate and so are affordable meal facilities for day scholars. Despite the fact that the DU Act (Section 33) provides for every student’s accommodation as a compulsory duty of the University, the DU administration remains indifferent. Hence, an estimated 1 lakh-plus students of this University are forced to live in rooms or small tenements that have been rented privately. These students are exploited and harassed by greedy landlords and private property-dealers who charge exorbitant sums as rent which are frequently increased. These students also have minimal access to libraries and other basic amenities.
Since the problem has particularly grown in the last few years, many students’ organizations have been demanding the Right to Accommodation. However, neither DU nor the Delhi Government has felt the need to do anything to bring them even a modicum of relief. The absence of standardized rent, the landlords’ unwillingness to issue receipts or undertake general maintenance of the rooms/tenements given out on rent, and the lack of basic amenities have compelled the students to launch a city-wide movement to demand implementation of the Delhi Rent Control Act. The DUTA wholeheartedly supports this democratic initiative and asks students and teachers to join the padayatras that are happening around the city to raise public awareness on the issue.
The DUTA also appeals to the Delhi Government to accede to the demands raised by the students, which include, apart from the implementation of the Rent Control Act, setting up of good public libraries, more food-stalls for subsidized meals and water ATMs. It also urges the MHRD to increase the financial outlay for the necessary infrastructure and to ensure that the DU administration complies with Section 33 of the DU Act.
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