The residents of GH-1 have raised concerns that the authorities have not adequately addressed them for more than a week. The consequence was two significant protests led by the residents of Hall 4 and GH-1.
On the morning of March 26, residents of GH-1 were surprised by the sound of construction as workers began to demolish the basketball and badminton court to make way for a new block. According to the residents they weren’t informed or consulted about this development beforehand. However, it was built merely 4 meters from the current residing block, leading to concerns about their well-being, academic productivity, and a need for more communication from the HEC and authorities. The residents raised the following problems-
- The residents complained that they were not told about the construction, despite its proximity to their residential blocks, which caused them a great deal of worry. Excessive drilling noise and dust cause inconveniences to the residents. In addition, The shield surrounding the construction site blocked ventilation for ground-floor residents of A-block entirely. They are afraid that chronic exposure to construction work might aggravate health conditions.
- They claimed that GH-1 has the least perimeter among all residence halls, and considering this space crunch, they wonder why their hall was chosen for new construction.
- As construction is taking place in the basketball and badminton courts, the residents are concerned that their sports facilities are being taken away. Further, if the basketball and badminton court were re-constructed, the green areas and open spaces would be impacted.
- The residents expressed concern about the lack of corresponding increase in facilities, such as the size of the mess and the number of cycle stands. They also complained that there is already a water seepage and water supply problem in the hall, and constructing a new block might cause problems.
- As working on theoretical research, attending online meetings, paper presentations, etc., would require total concentration and silence, the residents were frustrated that this was no longer possible and it would have a significant impact on their efficiency and mental peace.
After the construction began, the students’ hostility grew from small WhatsApp groups to more significant in-person discussions. After the residents raised questions, the hall president emailed the General Body Meeting (GBM) on the 27th of March, stating that the construction is for building a residential block to accommodate the increasing student strength. The mail also mentioned that the HEC was unaware of the “when and where” of the construction plans.
After pressure from residents during an informal meet-up, the Hall President called for an urgent GBM on the 29th of March. After an hour of heated arguments with the HEC, the warden was called to address the residents’ concerns. Warden answered the resident’s queries and promised a meeting with the ADHA for further grievance. It was decided to halt the construction until further discussion with the authorities.
On 30th March, the ADHA visited GH1 and agreed to discuss the concerns with the DoSA (Director of Student Affairs), DoIP (Dean of Infrastructure and Planning), and DD (Deputy Director). After the meeting, the warden sent a mail stating that the ADHA said it was impossible to stop the construction, but the authorities would consider the residents’ concerns. Around 300 residents signed a petition, which was decided to be presented in the meeting with the authorities.
The construction resumed on 1st April. The meeting with the authorities was scheduled for the afternoon of the same day. The residents felt that the ADHA was unable to address the concerns raised by the GBM. However, the ADHA assured the residents that the construction would be running between 9 am to 6 pm.
At night, when the construction didn’t stop until 11 pm, around 60 residents gathered in front of the hall in demand to talk to the administration. In the middle of this, the DoIP showed up to talk to the contractor. The residents alleged that after they confronted the DoIP for answers, he ran away while saying that he did not have to talk to the residents. At around 12:30 am, as more administration personnel failed to arrive, the entire crowd started to walk towards the director’s bungalow. The students had one significant demand: to have an open-house discussion with the concerned authorities.
Around 2:30 am, the Security Chairman, J Ramkumar, arrived at the site to listen to their concerns. A meeting with all the officials was promised in the morning, but the students wanted written assurance from the Security Chairman about the next day’s meetings. They were only willing to talk to the DD, as they found the DoIP and ADHA unreliable. After a heated discussion, the final mail was sent by Prof. J Ramkumar to the PSG while copying the presidents of all the girls’ hostels, consisting of Hall 4, GH1, and Hall 6. The mail pointed out four points-
- The meeting will be held on 2nd April between 2 pm to 4 pm with ADHA, DoSA, DoIP, and DD.
- The construction will be stopped on the 2nd of April.
- As the residents had demanded a non-closed-door meeting, the same would be communicated to the Deans.
- The venue for the meeting, as decided by the residents, would be GH1 lawn.
As soon as the president of GH1 forwarded the mail to the residents, the crowd dispersed at 4 in the morning.
As agreed upon in the mail, all residents gathered on GH1’s lawn the following afternoon at 2 pm. After an hour of waiting, the officials didn’t show up. The residents felt betrayed as the Security Chairman’s assurance was being rendered useless. The girls became impatient and started protesting in front of the GH1 gate. They set out for the Kargil Chowk to participate in yet another demonstration. They blocked the road entirely restricting the movement of vehicles.
The PSG, CoSHA Convener, and GH-1 president came to the protest after a meeting with the authorities to convey the authorities’ message – that the residents should understand why such a construction is necessary, that the girl students in the future would have to live in a crunch.
This made the residents furious on three levels- one, the authorities did not keep up to their promise and held a closed-door meeting without them; two, the authorities wanted girls to understand and adjust to the ongoing construction, not adequately engaging with the issues they raised; and three, although IITK is a premier institution, it could not a make timely projections about the number of incoming students and arrange the necessary accommodation.
Being extremely frustrated with the authorities and the student representatives, the residents marched to the director’s bungalow. On the way, the residents caught the director in his car while returning from an event. After a discussion with the director, he promised to send a mail regarding the open house to be held in a maximum of two days from today, and then the protesters dispersed. The director urged them to confront him in his office if the mail wasn’t delivered. They now hope to meet the director with the following demands:
1. Stopping construction altogether in their halls. They urge the administration to look for long-term solutions like building/allocation of new hostels to girls.
2. Restoration of sports facilities at their residences.
To get a statement from the authorities, our team reached out to ADHA, to which no response was received at the time of publication.
Stay tuned for further developments on the issue.
Written by: Aarish Khan, Gauravi Chandak, Mutasim Khan
Design credits: Deekshansh Vardhan
Edited by: Bhavya Sikarwar, Sanika Gumaste
