Welfare hostels become hellholes

Hyderabad Dec. 11: The state government prides itself for opening thousands of hostels across the state for backward class, scheduled caste and scheduled tribe students, but most of them are in a pitiable condition. Lack of funds and absence of supervision by higher officials are the main reasons for the dismal state of hostels. Conditions in welfare hostels at Amberpet, Madannapet, Malakpet are so abysmal and parents are deeply worried about the safety of their children living in these hostels. Basic facilities including drinking water, electricity, clean toilets, chairs and tables are lacking in these hostels.

Moreover, girls hostels also have security problem. Because the boundary walls are not maintained properly and security guards are not provided, miscreants throw stones at the students and try to peep in when the girls are in the shower. Students of the Amberpet welfare hostel complain about the poor quality of food and lack of sanitation in their hostels.
“There are not enough toilets and bathrooms,” said K. Bhaskar, a BC student. “We have to wait in long queues in the morning to use them and we miss classes .” “We haven’t got blankets and bedsheets, though winter is here and nights are very chilly,” says Sai Kishore, who stays in Malakpet welfare hostel. “We have to use old and torn bedsheets.”

Meanwhile, the students at Madannapet welfare hostel are denied power because the hostel authorities have not paid the mounting bills worth Rs 1 lakh. “APTransco officials have visited our hostel thrice and have disconnected the power supply,” says J. Mahesh Kumar, an SC student. “We were forced to spend several nights without power.” In fact, all the city hostels together owe Rs 8 lakh as power bill arrears to APTransco. Several students were also falling prey to diseases which arise out of the unhygienic conditions. Many hostels do not get water supply in the toilets. Often, drains are blocked and sewer water spills out.

Says Mr China Bhumanna, a farmer, whose son Ashok Kumar is a boarder at Domalguda hostel, “I was delighted when my son secured an engineering seat as well as hostel accommodation for free,” he says. “But I was shocked to find out that he was staying with 10 other students in one room.” Mr Bhumanna then hurriedly moved his son to a rented room with three students. While in 2006-07, about 140 students died, in 2007-08 the figure was 158 and in the current academic year, 76 students have died of malaria, diarrhoea and anaemia.

Meanwhile, the hostels complain that they have not received government funds for the second quarter of the year. “We got Rs 1.09 lakh for the first quarter but we are yet to get the funds for the second quarter,” says an official of the Malakpet welfare hostel. The indifferent attitude of the government in maintaining the hostels can be guessed from the fact that while it allots funds with one hand, it imposes cuts on spending with the other.
The director of treasuries and accounts department has recently imposed a cut of Rs 88.35 crore on mess charges for BC/SC/ST students citing “financial crisis”. Similarly, while the social welfare department has cleared Rs 16.21 crore for SC hostels, the finance department has not release the amount.

Though, the state government had been indicted by the National Human Rights Commission and the Lok Ayukta for the poor condition of the hostels, it still lacks an action plan to improve the conditions. Even the AP High Court, while hearing a complaint,
had given a directive to improve the conditions in the hostels. There are 2,356 welfare hostels in the state in which 2,48,024 students are staying. Of these, 1,640 are boys hostels and 716 are girls hostels. Nearly 80 per cent of them are being run in rented premises.