The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration has accepted several demands of the protesting student’s Union including conducting a caste census on campus. It is pertinent to note that the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) has been protesting against the university administration for the past 15 days. However, the stalemate between the protesting students’ body and the university administration may come to an end as the administration has agreed to at least six out of the 12 major demands raised by JNUSU.
As per reports, the agreed demands include conducting a caste census of the campus, increasing scholarship amounts, reinstating the old in-house entrance exam system — JNU Entrance Exam (JNUEE) — for admissions, and reducing the weightage of Viva in admissions.
The students’ body has also claimed that the administration has agreed to drop the inquiries in a sexual harassment case where the survivor staged a protest at the North Gate of the campus. It has also reportedly agreed to drop inquiries initiated against students who were part of a water protest outside the VC’s residence.
However, even after the administration agreed to several demands of the protesting students’ union, JNUSU has continued its protest. It has demanded that the administration give them written confirmation of the agreed demands.
As per reports, functionaries of JNUSU have been holding hunger strike since 11th August. It alleged that the President and Councillor of the students’ body have lost several kgs of weight and facing health issues.
Earlier, a negotiation meeting was held on 23rd August. It was the day when the JNUSU took out a long march to the Ministry of Education. The students’ body claimed that Rector-I of the university, Brijesh Kumar Pandey had assured them that the university would accept some of their demands.
When contacted, Pandey told the media, “The administration will accept all the positive demands of the students in their best interest. Anything beyond our authority cannot be fulfilled.”
He added, “The university is currently facing a funding crunch. We will write to the UGC to request an allocation so that we can increase the scholarship amount as demanded by the students. As for the caste census, the data regarding the categories in which students have been admitted is already available on our website. That won’t be an issue.”
The JNUSU has claimed that the university has agreed in principle to increase the merit-cum-means scholarship from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 as well as to extend the provision to students of the School of Engineering and the School of Management.
JNUSU’s other prominent demand included reinstating the JNUEE which is an in-house entrance exam system for admissions. The Union further claimed that the Rector-I has verbally assured that admissions will be conducted through JNUEE starting from the next academic session.
Regarding the demand to hold a caste census, the students’ body further claimed that the administration has verbally assured the union that they will publish the category-wise data of JNU students, faculty, and staff within the next 15 days.
They added that the university has also agreed to present the Nafey Committee report at the upcoming Academic Council (AC) meeting for approval, which recommends reducing the weightage of viva marks to 10-15 percent in admissions, as reported by news agency PTI.
