After the requests of Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-Bombay) students went unheard, five postgraduate students of the institute started their hunger strike on campus in Mumbai, on Saturday, August 6.
The students have been protesting since July against a recent fee hike implemented by the institute on PG programs--MTech and PhD by almost 35-40%.
Thereafter, students got a slight of relief as the administration reduced INR 1,800 from the Semester Mess Advance (SMA) component of the fee structure. A day later, on Sunday, August 7, IIT Bombay released a notification with the details of why the fee hike was necessary with the reminder of the July 26 meeting held with students regarding the same with Deputy Director (Finance and External Affairs) making a presentation with accounting information to explain where their fees are being spent, and what fraction of IIT's expenses are covered by fees.
Besides, they continued with a relay hunger strike from Saturday, demanding a complete rollback of the fee hike. The administration, however, ruled out a complete rollback of the new fee hike.
While the students complained about threats by the administration to discourage them from protesting, the administration said the protest is unnecessary as a dialogue has been initiated with the students and fee-hike is justified.
According to reports, the venue for hunger strike was changed twice owing to the reunion convocation ceremony on campus for batches which graduated during the pandemic and had missed out on the traditional convocation ceremony.
On the other hand, the authorities highlighted that the hike was approved by the Board of Governors nearly three years back, but its implementation was halted due to the pandemic.
For those unversed, the deadline to pay fees for the current academic year is on August 9. Hence, the students have clarified that they will continue their protest until the management rolls back the fee hike.
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