The suicide of an LSR student’s death due to suicide over financial constraints in continuing with her studies has made Delhi University colleges to take steps in helping students by providing fee assistance, data cards and laptops for such students in need. The colleges have also started one-n-one interactions with the students to ensure that their mental health is under check.
Lady Sri Ram college Principal Suman Sharma aid that the college administration has declared a fee reduction for a few courses. A committee will be established to provide laptops and the college has permitted some second-year students to reside in hostels.
Principal Suman said, “Given the fact that students are not able to avail certain facilities of the college due to being off-campus, the college has removed such charges from the fees this year. This has led to a substantial reduction in the fee. In addition, it is possible to pay the fee in installments.”
“Keeping in mind the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, current second-year students upon fresh application and on the basis of need will be allowed to stay in the hostel after the commitments to incoming first years and the current third years, who already are in the hostel, have been met,” she added.
Miranda House Principal Bijaylaxmi Nanda said the college is working on helping students with internet data packs as a load of education has increased after classes were shifted to online due to the pandemic. Nanda said, “We realised it during the first month of lockdown only that just online classes will not be enough and equal attention will have to be paid to mental wellness. We took some steps but we will increase our efforts now and focus on one-on-one interactions.”
She said the college is also looking for options for offering financial support to students by reducing the fee structure.
The staff association of the St Stephen’s college has also proposed the college principal to set up a board to reach out to such students who are facing financial difficulties.
Staff association president Nandita Narain said, “As we are all aware, the pandemic has caused great distress in society. There is an increased financial hardship and some of our students are facing genuine difficulties in accessing online classes and paying the fees.”
She further said that students are requesting faculty members to help them with both fee payment and not having devices to attend online classes. There might be many more students who yet to be reached.
According to the principal of Shri Ram College of Commerce, Simrit Kaur stated that the college has received requests for scholarships and laptops since the onset of lockdown.
Kaur said there are students who don’t own devices, so the college is trying to provide help to students with the things they require. Apart from this, the college is also providing “round-the-clock counselling services to students so that if there is any issue it can be addressed timely.”
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The suicide of a 19-year-old LSR student from Telangana, because she didn’t want to be a burden on her parents due to monetary issues has brought forth the educational related problems students are facing since the lockdown.
Colleges across the country including Delhi University colleges are closed since March in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and all teaching and learning activities have completely transitioned online since then.