http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chennai/dalit-students-face-fee-crisis-213
Dalit students face fee crisis June 6th, 2010 DC Correspondent June 5: Poverty-stricken dalit students, pursuing their postgraduation at the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, have accused the management of indulging in coercive practices, including withholding the marksheets, to collect the tuition fee. The students are on the verge of discontinuing their studies. The institute, one of the 16 blacklisted deemed universities, functioning near the Rajiv Gandhi memorial in Sriperumpudur, offers postgraduation courses in five streams, including youth empowerment, gender studies, life skill education, career counselling and local governance. According to the affected students, they had quit their jobs to join the course following an announcement by the institute that dalit students would be exempted from paying the tuition fee. “During the last two semesters, the management did not ask us to pay the fees. Only after the new director assumed office, the institute has started demanding fees. If they had asked for fees earlier, we would not have joined the course. All of us are first generation graduates, hailing from very poor families. We have no choice but to discontinue the course,” said a student requesting anonymity. Pointing out that the institute’s brochure highlights the exemption of SC and ST students from paying the fee, another student rued that they could not apply for scholarship now as the time had lapsed. “The management has withheld the results for the third semester. We don’t know whether we have cleared all the papers. We are not in a position to apply for re-examination even if we have failed,” a student complained, adding that it was impossible to pay more than Rs 12,000 now. The students said the management had assured employment on completion of the course besides providing free education. Nearly 30 aggrieved students were vexed with the attitude of the management and are planning to complain to higher officials about the sudden change in policy. ------------------------------------ ---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to [email protected], OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to [email protected] TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to [email protected] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
