TISS students start crowdfunding campaign to pay their three OBC counterparts’ fees

A CROWDFUNDING campaign was launched on Wednesday by protesting students at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, to aid OBC students, who are unable to pay the fees for the upcoming semester.
Through the campaign, the students are trying to raise around Rs 1.4 lakh to pay the fees of three OBC students — Rs 46,800 each — who are on the verge of dropping out owing to the lack of funds.

“As of now, we have started this campaign for three students. Although we have reverted to charity, despite all our struggles and protest, this is the need and exactly what we had predicted at the beginning of our protest,” said one of the protesting students.

In 2015, the institute withdrew an exemption of fees to OBC students and last year the withdrawal was extended to SC and ST students leading to massive protests across all campuses of the university. The students are eligible for Government of India Post-Matric Scholarship (GoI PMS). While the institute has now agreed to exempt the fees of the existing SC and ST students, the OBC students are still struggling to make ends meet, said a protesting student.

“There are at least 40-45 such students currently struggling to make ends meet. The students get the scholarship amount only at the end of an academic year. But the institute has asked them to pay the fees upfront at the beginning of the semester,” said the student. As per information gathered by students of TISS through Right to Information, it has resulted in the number of OBC students falling to 18 per cent in 2016-17 from the previous 28 per cent seen in 2013.

The appeal from the students has already got some response. “We have appealed on social media for people to contribute to the cause. The appeal has received a good response with some people asking us for details,” said the student.