Author – Preeti Koli 

Amidst the pandemic a lot of chaos has been happening simultaneously. Rules and regulations have been scrapped or amended overnight. Students are the most affected during the CoronaVirus pandemic. From taking the online classes to paying for their own education, they have been struggling a lot and more so students belonging to marginalized sections of society. Higher education is still inaccessible to a lot of students coming from marginalized sections which leads to their under representation in the education sector even in the 21st century modern and neo-liberal world. 

The full fee waiver policy given to SC/ST/PwD candidates is proposed to be scrapped according to the new rules at Ambedkar University, Delhi and it will be diluted under the income slab from this session onwards i.e., 2020-21. Full fee waiver is a major feature of the Ambedkar University, Delhi and it is one of the very few Indian universities that provide 100% fee exemption to SC/ST/PwD students. It should be noted that full fee waiver immediately came into effect from 2016 on the ideals of Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar. Recently, a case of my sister’s admission raises a several questions on the same, self written testimony of which is as follows:

“I am a PhD student at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, Delhi (AUD) belongs to the Scheduled Caste community and I am availing fee waiver since my admission under the provision of fee waiver policy provided to SC/ST/PwD students. This was the same reason why my sister applied to the program this year at AUD. The fee waiver policy was clearly mentioned at the time of application on the university website and on the MBA Leaflet 2020 as well. My sister took the entrance for the same and got selected under the same category as mentioned in the First MBA Provisional list on 14th August. After she got selected, her registration portal on 18th August was showing a full fee payment option for which we contacted the School of Business, Public Policy and Social Entrepreneurship (SBPPSE) to clarify the same and they verbally told us that there have been some changes in rules and now students belonging to SC/ST/PwD can’t avail full fee waiver from this session, they have to now provide income certificate in order to avail the same. There was no written notice anywhere for the same. The last date to submit the fee was 25th August. We were denied admission because we were busy inquiring for this process.”

After a protest and a support from the student community of the university on the same matter, Indian express made the news headlines on 6th September, 2020. On inquiring more, it came to the forefront that the university was actually planning to scrap the full fee waiver policy, the notice of which was officially to be proposed on 8th September. There is a dissent among the student community against the dilution of full fee waiver policy under income slab. 

Authorities are taking advantage of the opportunity by implementing such rules during the time of ongoing crisis, limiting the students by taking away their right to protest and render students helpless. A systematic strategy is taking place that can easily be seen in college and universities because during the time of application there was a mention of full fee-waiver while post-admission they asked for fee. University remained silent on the matter as they were clearly waiting for 8th September to announce it publicly. 

This particular issue is of a special concern to me as I am a PhD scholar of education and I am working on the topic of education among dalit girls. I was not aware that my study for the topic would begin as soon as I was admitted to the university and chose to study the topic that I encounter with, on a daily basis. I am reading a lot of articles around the issue of the caste system for my PhD, especially on the intersections of gender and caste. One of the paper by Vandana Singh (2019) caught my attention in context of Dalit girls and the problems they face in order to pursue higher education. Since, there is an under representation of dalit girls in higher education and higher education is only a dream for so many girls hailing from marginalized sections. Hence, full fee waiver policy at Ambedkar University, Delhi have had made it possible for so many Dalit women to represent themselves in higher education. This paves the way for dalit girls to study in college and universities they have only wished for. So many girls along with me are the first generation Dalit Scholars from their families to ever reach this pedestal. 

But the ongoing politics is limiting the reach of education for those who are already disadvantaged both economically and socially. The census data and other Government surveys already shows a much lower literacy rate among Scheduled Caste Population. If the lower caste families get to educate their children, they put more emphasis on their son’s education. The problem gets worse for women from scheduled caste community. The conditions are such that completing the basic education becomes a task let alone the higher education and employment opportunities. Singh (2019) noted that in Dalit families, mothers are mostly illiterate and educated fathers build the foundation of education for their children in 21st century, paving a way for their daughters to study. Moreover, in the lower caste families women have to fight and struggle a lot to get quality education. They have to continuously negotiate with the caste and patriarchal structure to access the education. Singh (2019) notes that dalit girls are often interrogated for their need to pursue higher education and sometimes it is seen as an obstruction in their marriage. 

The full fee waiver policy in such case gives a leisure to dalit woman that they are not denied to study further. It should be marked as one of the major concerns for dalit girls to get educated who have been raised in upwardly mobile families because from the very beginning of their life they understand the importance of education. Singh (2019) again asserts that education proves to be a strong tool for dalit girls to resist oppression where they gain the apprehension about the issue of marginality through the intersections of caste, class and gender. This might also lead to drop out if the full fee waiver policy for existing students on the basis of written notice is discontinued. 

The university has already made amendments in reservation policy of admissions under which if a student belonging to SC/ST/OBC category has passed qualifying examination from Delhi while their reservation certificate is issued from outside Delhi, then they are not eligible to avail reservation for admissions anymore. They will be considered in the unreserved category in that case. These two significant changes made by the university are merely causing an obstruction and I am afraid that the platform will remain limited yet once again for the students belonging to marginalized sections who wish to aspire to study further.

Author – Preeti Koli pursuing PhD in Education from School of Education Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi and can be contacted at preetikoli44@gmail.com

Reference – Singh, V. (2019). Negotiating with patriarchy and access to higher education. Pages. 43-63. In Banerjee, S. & Ghosh, Nandini- Gender in Contemporary India: Power, Privilege and Politics (Eds.). New York: Routledge.

Image credit – The Indian Express