| Food poisoning exposes pathetic state of SC-ST hostels | |
|
Dec 3, 2005
the pioneer
| |
| Twenty students of the women's hostel have been admitted in the District Hospital here with diarrhoea and other conditions suspected to be caused by contaminated food served at the hostel.
| |
| The students allege that the latest incident of food poisoning is just one of the symptoms of a deeper malady plaguing the pre-matric and post-matric hostels in the State. In these hostels functioning under the directorates of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, misappropriation of funds and negligence are rampant, they say | |
| "The concerned Minister visited the hostel and the hospital but he didn't have the time to listen to our grievances," complained the students. They believed that the food poisoning might have been done deliberately in order to close down the hostels.
| |
| The pre-matric hostel at Uliyakkoil, Kollam, was closed down after an incidents like this. Prasanti, a plus-two student of Government High School here said she has been admitted in hospital for the third time, for the same sickness, and in the same hospital. She was in the pre-matric hostel at Uliyakkoil till the ninth standard. The hostel closed down after recurring incidents of food poisoning. "We feared for the lives of our children, so I took my two children home," Prasanti's mother Prabha said.
| |
| Reagan, an LLB student and joint convener of the Post-Matric Hostels Action Council, said the inmates of the post-matric hostels all over the State would go on indefinite strike. The students also submitted a memorandum, seeking immediate redress of their long-standing grievances, to the District Scheduled Caste Development officer on Friday. They complained that the hundreds of students in the two hostels, for men and women, were being denied adequate food as well as basic facilities. Despite repeated request, the authorities did not take any action.
| |
| "We don't have enough chairs, tables or beds. The library in the hostel was closed long ago. The post of the tutor has been vacant for long," the students said. The mess allowance is Rs 20 in the post-matric hostel and Rs 13 in the pre-matric hostel. These rates were fixed in 2000.
| |
| The Post-Matric Hostel Action Council, which met in Kochi on November 13, had decided to fight against the injustices and submitted a memorandum to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Minister AP Anilkumar on November 16. The Minister had then promised immediate action, but nothing was done, according to Raja, president of the action council, Thiruvananthapuram.
| |
| The students of the Thiruvanathapuram hostel had held a two-day satyagraha demanding increase in the mess allowance and other facilities. | |
| Mr Anilkumar had given the students a written assurance that immediate action would be taken to improve the conditions in the hostels in the State. | |
| Of the six bathrooms in the men's hostel, five have been locked for repairs. All the 44 students there have just one bathroom and many students cannot reach the college on time because of this.
| |
| There are 18 post-matric hostels in the State in records, but the one at Sasthamkotta was closed down citing the reason that there was not adequate number of students. Twelve of the hostels are for boys and five are for girls. Of the total 90 pre-matric hostels, 48 are for boys and 42 are for girls.
| |
| The parents of students said they came to know about the food poisoning incident through radio news and newspapers. The hostel authorities never bothered to inform them, they said. "Though we are poor, we care about our children. We had given the hostel authorities our contact phone numbers," Murukadas, father of Sreekala, who is in hospital, said.
| |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ours is a battle not for wealth or for power.
It is a battle for freedom. It is a battle for the reclamation of human personality."
- Dr BR Ambedkar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
