The members of Revolutionary Students Youth Front (RSYF) have called on the State government to revoke the decision to construct a working women’s hostel within the University of Madras campus in Chepauk.
This comes in the backdrop of the Departments of Social Welfare and Women Empowerment and Higher Education deciding to construct a working women’s hostel instead of prioritising a girls’ student hostel within the University campus. Since April, the decision by authorities has drawn flak from various quarters, including students.
This decision was made following the announcement by the State government to construct a new working women’s hostel, under the initiative called Thozhiyar Viduthi, in 14 locations across the State. In Chennai, the hostels are to be constructed in Chepauk and Taramani.
However, the particular working women’s hostel is planned to be constructed on the premises of the Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (RIASM) campus in Chepauk, which the students object to.
Speaking to DT Next, V Deeran, RSYF state president, said, “In 2018, the girl students were evacuated by the RIASM campus hostel owing to safety concerns of the dilapidated building. The girls who stayed there were transferred to a girls’ hostel on the Taramani campus. But, instead of constructing a girls’ hostel, the government is constructing a working women’s hostel within the university campus.”
He said that students are forced to travel long distances to reach the university because of the government’s apathy in not reconstructing the hostel. Every day, girl students are pushed to stay in private hostels, shelling out hard-earned money, he added.
Additionally, RSYF members claim that the convenor committee is making administrative decisions with inadequate knowledge of the university, and the syndicate, too, is inefficient, as it has been more than a year since they held a meeting.
Placing their demands, another RSYF member said, “We request the government to revoke the decision to construct a working women’s hostel within the university campus. Instead, they should construct a student hostel for girls. Additionally, we also request the swift appointment of a vice chancellor for the efficient functioning of the university.” Such issues often crop up in Madras University as the varsity has been running without a VC for a long time.
Source: DT Next
(This article is republished exactly as it appeared in DT Next on July 25, 2025)
