People's Democracy

Dharna In Front Of Kerala House

SCORES of students and youth belonging to various institutions and areas sat on a dharna in front of the Kerala House in Delhi to protest the UDF government’s anti-student policies which were driving students from poor background out of education. The immediate cause of the protest was the recent suicide of Rajani S Anand, a self-financing engineering student of Kerala.

The protesting students marched from the SFI-DYFI office to  the Kerala House.

Speaking on the occasion, Bharthruhari, DYFI central executive committee member, explained the distressing situation prevailing in Kerala due to the government’s commercialization of education in the name of self-financing courses. Rajani tried her level best to get loans from banks, to pursue her education. Despite all the propaganda about easy availability of loans, she could not procure it from any bank. This led her to take the extreme measure of committing suicide.

SFI leader, Albeena Shakeel, lambasted the Antony government for pursuing anti-student policies and not for being most intolerant of the student community.

DYFI Delhi state secretary, Sidheswar Prasad, explained the overall context of globalisation and liberalisation which was leading to such a situation. He said the self-financing courses have virtually kept out the weaker sections from the boundary of educational institutions.