Students Against Fee Hike, IIT-B

It's been a month since the end of our protests, IITB SAFH sent out an open letter to the Fee Standing Committee which includes the Student Council also now about the progress of their proposal given in the fee committee meeting on Aug 11, 2022. We continue the dialogue for affordable public education and transparent governance of funds in every public Institution.

We would like to thank all the student organizations, political parties, students and other individuals who offered their solidarity to our struggle. We thank the media outlets which gave more visibility to our cause.

We choose resistance, we remained persistent, and we won.
Our struggle to make higher education accesible to all continues.

IIT Bombay Students Against Fee Hike

Letter to Students
12th August 2022

We are in the midst of trying times, and yet, these are times we have raised our voices stronger than ever. In the course of the last month, we have put together a concerted, organised effort to roll back the fee hike–to make education accessible and affordable to all.
It would seem that the most impactful of our engagements has been the relay hunger strike, which has gone on for seven consecutive days. However, we must not forget the unrelenting efforts that the student volunteers have put into the organisational, mobilizational, outreach and awareness aspects of our movement.
Our combined struggle began with a thousand students amongst us condemning the fee-hike through the massive signature campaign, followed by social media campaigns and a major rally on campus. All of us have raised questions at the open house, which were crucial to the cause of students as well as education. We all have come together to peacefully protest the fee-hike through our silent demonstrations in front of SOM. Our cause has resonated with the bulk of people who stay and work on campus (consisting of a few faculty and staff members). The H14 and H11 Hostel Councils have also stood by us, and have set an example at representing our voices.
Despite the institute administration’s attempts to completely go ahead with the fee hike, we recognise that they have been willing to have a dialogue with us. We recognise the role of GSAA-PG in enabling this. We must remember that our achievements, however limited, have been possible only due to our continued, collective struggle.
Now, even as we take pause in our relay hunger strike, we reiterate our continued commitment to protecting the cause of universal access to public education. The proposal we have received from the institute administration on the 11th of August 2022 includes matters of reduction of fee components as well as of policy reforms.
We welcome the initiatives so far outlined in the proposal. However, the policy aspects of the proposal are a list of promises without concrete procedures, timelines and structures for the same. We expect the Students’ Council to step up and ensure their fair and immediate implementation.
Our long struggle against the fee hike began on the 6th of July 2022. During the course of the struggle, we have come to a break of the second phase of the struggle. We are extremely thankful to all the 30 volunteers who sat for the hunger strike. Further, we are thankful to all the volunteers who took part in various roles, handling media and communication, outreach and campaign. They have worked hard to create awareness against the fee hike among the campus community. Additionally, we greatly appreciate all the support and solidarity that faculty members have extended to our cause. Student representatives and the administration, who have participated in establishing a dialogue, have also contributed greatly. We also thank the cooperation of the non-academic staff, security personnel, and the cleaning staff who supported our cause.

Student Against Fee Hike
(Statement Issued on 12th August)

We had started the second phase of our struggle against the fee hike on 28th July by declaring that we will be starting a relay hunger strike if the demands we had specifically stated for this phase were not fulfilled by 5th August. The demands we had stated in the declaration were as following:
1. An Immediate revocation of the recent fee hike decision taken by the Standing Committee for Student Fee Matters. A complete roll back of the fee hike.
2. Revocation of the said Board of Governors resolution that recommends 5 % annual hike in the fees, based on which the fee hike decision was allegedly made.
3. Inclusion of Student Representatives in the Standing Committee for Student Fee Matters.
We started the relay hunger strike on 6th August as the administration had not done much about the above stated demands till that date. On the first day of the hunger strike, the Dean SA had promised us that he would arrange for a meeting with the DD FEA to find a resolution. The promised meeting happened on 8th of August in the Deans SA’s office, in which 4 volunteers from SAFH, along with the GSAA PG met the DD and other officials and conveyed our demands again. The officials had assured us that they will hold a Fee Committee meeting to consider our demands in the upcoming days. A Fee Committee meeting was convened on 11th August in the morning and formulated a proposal which involved certain reduction in the fee hike. The proposal was again discussed with 5 volunteers of SAFH along with the GSAA PG by the Registrar in a meeting held in the Registrar's office. We gave our feedback on the proposal. The Fee Committee again held a meeting to consider our feedback and presented a final proposal in the evening. The proposal involves the following important points with respect to our original demands;
1. Reduction in the fee hike. Hostel fee for all the students has been reduced by Rs 1500, Tuition fees for MTech new entrants has been reduced by Rs 15000, academic fee for all the students excluding the tuition fees has been reduced by Rs 550, Tuition fees for PhD new entrants has been reduced by Rs 1250, One time fee component for new entrants has been reduced by Rs 1100.
2. The administration has agreed to reconsider the BoG circular about a 5 per cent annual hike in the upcoming Fee Committee Meetings.
3. Students Representatives have been added to the Fee Committee as permanent invitees by a decision taken on 29th July.
Also, the administration has agreed to reduce the HAF amount (Rs 1800) from the SMA, which was being doubly collected in the original hiked fees, and have provided the option of paying the SMA in two installments by a decision taken on 5th August. The deadline for paying the fees has also been extended from 19th August to 31st August.
We have decided to accept the proposal presented by the administration and to suspend the hunger strike with effect from 12th August with following conditions;
1. The Fee Committee Meeting to reconsider the BoG circular about 5 per cent annual hike should be convened before the BoG meeting scheduled on 19th August and should take a decision on the same.
2. The things that are promised in the proposal document sent by the GSAA PG should be properly followed up and the PG Council should try to complete those promises by 19th August.
If these conditions are not fulfilled by the above-mentioned date, we will be intensifying our struggle.
We consider this proposal as a partial but substantial victory for our second phase. We could achieve at least some monetary relief for all the students in form of the reduction in the fees. The students of this institute came together and exhibited extraordinary resolve during this phase. We fought with police and security threats. Till today, 30 different people have sat for the relay hunger strike. While we were sitting at the protest site, many students kept rallying here to show their support. Many faculties visited and expressed their solidarity. We are hoping that this movement will keep having an eye on its goal of keeping public education accessible to all. We hope that this committed struggle by the students will send a message to everybody that the student community of this institute has the resolve to stand for values like democracy, equality and justice for all. We will be declaring the third phase for our long-term goals in due course.

Movement produces its own singers, songs and painting. Sketch captures today's protest, hunger strike day 6 at the main building@IITB Sketch credit: Vankundre.

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Hunger strike demanding rollback of the massive fee hike in moves to day 5.

IIT Bombay Students Against Fee Hike on Twitter “Hunger strike demanding rollback of the massive fee hike in moves to day 5. ”

Talk on Higher Education as a Public Good by Prof Amit Singh of Mechanical engineering department at the fee hike hunger strike protest

IIT Bombay Students Against Fee Hike on Twitter “Talk on Higher Education as a Public Good by Prof Amit Singh of Mechanical engineering department at the fee hike hunger strike protest ”

Film screening at the protesting site happening everyday. Hunger strike is moving to day 5 today.

IIT Bombay Students Against Fee Hike on Twitter “Film screening at the protest site happening everyday. Hunger strike is moving to day 5 tomorrow. ”

Prof. Amit Singh talks to the protesting students on August 10, 2022

#IITBstudentsagainstfeehike #iitbrollbackfeehike Prof Amit Singh talks to the protesting students on the topic 'Higher Education as a Public Good' as part of the lecture series by faculty of IIT Bombay in solidarity with @iitbfeehike