Studying in DU may cost you mere thousands but for the accommodation, lakhs need to be doled out

In the middle of the online registration of the Delhi University (DU) coming to an end and a pacing tension awaiting the first cut-off, the scramble of outstation students to find a suitable accommodation are taking a toll on them.

The hunt becomes all the more exhaustive when the students coming from all over the country, worried about their safety, face a situation where there is no hostel facility and have to resort to renting exhorbitant rooms/PGs.

Encashing this compulsion, this period is a boon for the dealers or property owners who rent out rooms to these students at premium costs.

It is not an unknown fact but worth mentioning here that on an average a UG course under the Delhi University costs between Rs 6,000-10,000 annually whilst an accommodation costs around Rs 1,80,000-2,40,000 per year.

Left with little options the students are forced to dole out a huge amount for an average sized room. There are many students who cannot afford these overpriced rooms and have to settle for rooms lacking basic facilities. One such student, Swati, said: “It has been two years I am living in a room with improper food facilities and electricity. They only provide meal twice a day, rest I have to manage by myself. Though the cost is around Rs 10,000 it’s difficult to manage in a small double sharing room.”

On an average a room will pinch your pocket something between Rs 10k-20k depending upon whether it is a single occupancy or a shared accommodation. If this is not enough to reflect the boon for the dealers then there is more. In order to make more out of the season, the property dealers have two to three separate accommodations with several rooms. One of a student from Faculty of Management Studies said: “I have been looking for PGs and flats near my college but most of them are costing me around Rs 20k that to on a sharing basis.” With double and triple sharing most of the PGs charge extra for Air Conditioners. The average room rent for a triple sharing semi-furnished room with a common bathroom is around Rs 12.5k per person. Though, Rs 15-16k is charged for a double sharing furnished room, at times the price reaches Rs 20k. 

This is one reason where students with a hostel accommodation seem beneficial with respect to the high rental rooms. But there are hostels under the Delhi Unuiversity where the administration does not work in compliance to a student’s satisfaction. A physically challenged student, Preeti, had to struggle for two years as she was not allotted any hostel room, irrespective of the distance she had to cover on a daily basis from Samaypur Badli to North Campus.

Preeti said: “From the day I took admission in the college, I started visiting the administration daily, filling up forms and trying to make them understand the difficulty I had in travelling. But I never received a positive response. They always used to say ‘it will take time, it’s not in our hands’. It was just so difficult to convince them.”

However, three years ago, for the implementation of Delhi Room Rent Control Act 1995, a group of students, alumni and teachers started with a ‘Right to Accommodation’ movement for accommodation for all students of Delhi University.