The Students Federation of India has urged the Tamil Nadu government to open more hostels for girl students.
In a resolution passed at its State-level conference here on Sunday, focussing on harassment faced by girl students, the SFI said that while the number of girls leaving home to other places for better educational opportunities had gone up, the number of government-run hostels remained abysmally low.
V. Mariappan, State secretary of SFI, said the girls faced a lot of hardship because of this and were often forced to stay in unrecognised hostels compromising their safety.
The conference condemned the Union government for cutting down the expenditure on education of girls by ₹ 150 crore in the present budget compared to previous year.
Claiming that the Supreme Court had already made clear through different judgements the necessity for forming committees to promote healthy relationship between genders on campuses and ensuring toilet facilities in all schools and colleges, the conference blamed both the Union and State governments for failing to implement them.
The conference demanded the cancellation of National Eligibility-cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical courses by arguing that it denied opportunities for children from rural and economically-deprived backgrounds.
MKU colleges
Alleging that the constituent colleges of Madurai Kamaraj University lacked adequate infrastructure and other teaching facilities, the SFI appealed to the university administration to improve the quality of these colleges.