New Delhi: Weeks after a student committed suicide, allegedly because of financial woes, the reputed Lady Sri Ram College announced a reduction in fees for a few courses.
“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 instalments,” the Delhi women’s college said in an official communiqué.
“Keeping in mind the exceptional circumstances of the COVID 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,” the college further stated.
Second-year student BSc Mathematics (Honours) student Aishwarya Reddy hanged herself at her Telangana home earlier this month. In a suicide note, the 19-year-old said she did not want to burden her parents with her educational expenses, police said.
The students’ union of the college had been making certain demanding from the management, including revision of fee structure, since the incident.
Besides a cut in fee, the college has also set up a committee to provide laptops and allowed some second-year students to reside in hostels.
“A committee has been constituted to ensure that each student who needs a device is provided one and each department is in the process of creating a list of students requiring devices and their addresses. The college committee will ensure that these are procured and distributed to all students who need these at the earliest possible,” the college said.