MHRD is abolishing all financial aids for TISS, Campus is going on 100% shut.

The Tata Institute of Social Science is in news from past one year. First, It came into headlines for 25 teacher's sudden termination due to unrenewed contracts with UGC. Afterwards TISS administration abolished rights of OBC category students ab-initio from their scholarship entitlement and malnourished PHD-scholars from scrapping their funds.

But this recent agitation in the air of TISS campus is due to Government's (which provides 90% aids to the institution to run ) decision to stop all provided financial aids with a striking hike in tuition fees and hostel-canteen bills. The current improvement of government has put the future of enrolled students at strike which has compelled students to call 100% shut against discrimination.

Let's understand TISS, TISS was established in 1936 with the motto of "re-imagining future".

This 82 years old, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) was initially established as the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work, the very first school of social work in India. It was renamed to its current name in 1944.

TISS started as a small institute offering a post-graduate diploma in Social Work under Clifford Manshardt as its first director. Clifford Manshardt, aimed to establish a post-graduate social work school of national stature to engage young youth of India in a continuous study of Indian social issues and create meaningful interventions. The decade old TISS has played a very important role bring the prestige minds in shape in India. TISS alumni has contributed to policy, planning, action strategies and human resource development in India and abroad.

The financial aid for the TISS, prior to the withdrawal from government was :

1.Over 90% from the Indian government (The direct and indirect tax paid by Indian citizen ) through the University Grants Commission (UGC).

2.The remaining comes from the Tata Trusts.

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), whose motto is "Re-imagining Futures", is now getting Re-regularized through the UGC by the Indian government.

What government has done to agitate student and their future at stake?

1. Cancellation of the Government of India-Post-Matriculation Scholarship (GoI-PMS).

2. Suspended of the OBC scholarship in 2015.

3. Both current and newcomers, will have to pay their full fees even as they wait for their state scholarship amounts to come.

4. The institute, without mentioning anything in the prospectus, was now demanding tuition, dining hall (DH) and hostel fee from scholarship students of the 2016-18 batch.

5. The 2017-2019 batch will have to pay the full fee for DH and hostel as the notification was out in May 2017 before they took admission and they were very well aware about the notification. But the argument cannot be bought as the notification was released in May 2017 in between the admission process, not before the admission process was initiated.

6. No exemption for the students belonging to SC, ST and OBC students (including religious minorities)

Why these STUDENTS are entitled to the financial aids and GOVERNMENT cannot turn back when they wish?

Students admitted in the TISS on the merit of clearing the cutoff of TISSNET. So, the students sitting there wrote written paper, did better in GD and interviews then the rest of crowd to win those seats, which government is snatching away just to have more money golden sweat. The Government has a legal and moral binding under Article 46 of Constitutional provisions directs the State to protect the educational interests of the weaker section of society especially the Scheduled Casts and Scheduled Tribes.

As the most of the courses are of doctorate level. This is going to hamper the educated-intellectual fiber of India and will obstruct the SC, ST and OBC students (including religious minorities) from pursuing researcher education. It is going to effect more than 6000 families of enrolled students on the basis of merit. They deserve to be there.

The students from all campus of TISS are coming to Delhi to meet MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development).

Voice of TISS students taken from the event page on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/events/1370053346456886/

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences has withdrawn all financial assistance for all categories of students asking all students to pay Rs. 50,000 per semester for hostel and food. As of now, students from SC/ST communities were being awarded a waiver of tuition and hostel fees in the institution. A similar waiver was being awarded to OBC students, has already been revoked a couple of years earlier, leading to a significant drop in the percentage of OBC admissions. Given that the institute introduced a 75% fee increase for MPhil and MA students across categories in 2016, the existing financial burden on a student is extremely significant, in the absence of financial aid. The present attack if it goes through, shall make the institution completely inaccessible for all except the significantly rich and socially powerful section of the country’s population or push students into the trap of education loans at a time when even minimally decent employment has become very hard to come by. Hitting back against the various kinds of stop gap strategies being adopted by the TISS administration, such as giving students extension to pay their fees, threatening them with eviction and forcing them towards education loans, the students of TISS have declared 100% strike across campuses from 21st February onward with all classes and field work coming to a full halt demanding the restoration of access to education for students from marginalised backgrounds in their university.

The students of TISS have struck at a much deeper question. The fact of the matter is that the Central government has consistently and massively been cutting funds for higher education over the past some years. The funding for the UGC, which provides grants for all public universities was cut by 55% in 2016-17, when the Occupy UGC protests happened in opposition to the termination of Non-NET scholarships for MPhil PhD students. It has since then seen continuing decrease in allocation. On the contrary, this Union budget introduced Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) which will give LOANS to our universities, that the universities will have to repay by further increasing students’ fees and cutting down on waivers and scholarships. No wonder, the UGC is already asking all Central Universities to raise 30% of their costs through increasing “user charges”, i.e. student’s fees. What we are witnessing in TISS is just a beginning, a pre-cursor to what any and all of the country’s public universities are going to face. JNU has increased almost 200% hike in entrance examination fees. Various colleges across DU have been witnessing massive fee hikes, and some of them are even pushing for financial autonomy. Ambedkar University, Delhi charges near about 25,000 every semester, while the IITs charge more than 2 lakhs annualy. We saw how massive fees hike was imposed in Punjab University last year, strongly contested by students. While some of these institutions maintain the pretence of inclusiveness and “social justice” by a handful of scholarships or fee reimbursements for SC/ST students, none of these pretences can last while THE GOVERNMENT DECIDES TO STARVE HIGHER EDUCATION OF FUNDS. Let us come together to stand in solidarity with the striking students of TISS and add the force and anger of our voice to theirs, to send a resounding message to the government that education cannot be put on sale! We invite all students and organizations to participate. COLLECTIVE

#Tissstudents #strikeincollege #nofundgovernment #TISSNET