Students of IIIT-Dharwad boycott classes for basic facilities

For the last six days, students of the Indian Institute of Information Technology-Dharwad (IIIT-DH) have been staging a protest by boycotting classes against the non-availability of basic infrastructure and demanding change in management.

Multiple students informed DH that in spite of paying huge fees (Rs 4 lakh per annum and Rs 16 lakh per student for a four-year course), they are living a “cattle’s life” due to the lack of facilities at the premium institute. IIIT-DH is recognised as an institute of national importance and is run on a Public-Private Partnership model by the Union government’s Ministry of Education, the Government of Karnataka and industry partner Keonics.

The students charged that they have been facing a shortage of water for the last three months and the situation has worsened in the last 10 days. The students also complained of non-functioning washing machines, poor internet connectivity and harassment from the management over a minimum 85 per cent attendance norm to appear for the exams.

“Every semester we pay Rs 20,000 as the hostel fee and Rs 20,000 as the mess fee. However, facilities are very poor here. Each room in the boy’s hostel, which has the capacity to accommodate two or three students, is housing four students. There is hardly any place to read in the room,” said a student.

While the boy’s hostel has 200 rooms, the girl’s hostel constructed by the Infosys Foundation has 100 rooms. The boys hostel can accommodate only 700 students. However, currently, there are 900 male students living in them. “By November a fresh batch of students will arrive. So we, the fourth-year students have been asked to cut short our course and move out of campus,” said another student.

At least 15 students complained that they were denied permission to write exams stating low attendance. “The management has set 85 per cent as minimum attendance for appearing in exams. Several students who were sick and had to skip classes due to personal reasons for 10-12 days have been denied permission to write exams even after providing the required medical documents. This is compounding our backlogs and causing mental harassment,” said students.

Sources say that one of the students was asked by a head of the department to choose between his ailing father and career.

Not treated equally

At least three female students complained that the institute does not treat female students on par with the boys. “The girl’s hostel has poor WiFi connectivity and we are forced to go to the education block to study. However, by 9 pm we should be back in the hostels, otherwise our pictures are clicked by security personnel and sent to management, who in turn threaten to send them to our parents. There are no such restrictions for boys,” said a third-year female student. 

“What can you expect when the Registrar of the institute announces over the public announcement system that they do not treat female students on par with male students,” said a third-year student.

Registrar refutes charges

Institute’s in-charge Registrar Channappa Akki however refuted the charges and claimed that the girl students have misconstrued his comments. “The decision to restrict the movement of female students was taken after consulting with parents and syndicate members. The deadline has been increased to 9:30 pm now,” he said.

Akki also claimed that water crises at the hostel will be resolved in the next two days. “We don’t have a permanent water connection from the corporation. We have sunk five borewells and another two will be ready in the next few days,” he said. Replying to compulsory attendance, Akki said the decision was taken by the board and only the director of the institute has permission to allow students with low attendance to write the exam. However, former director Kavi Mahesh has not visited the institute since September 2022 due to ill health.