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Journalism of Courage
With water leaking through ceilings, broken tiles, dogs making a mess of garbage bags, lack of water filters, dysfunctional sanitary napkin machines and unclean washrooms, it’s a lot that students who live in the hostels inside Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) put up with daily. Though the university has hiked the accommodation fees, basic facilities are lacking due to which students are suffering, even contracting diseases.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Aditi Bagad, an MA (Philosophy) second-year student, rued the lack of cleanliness across the campus. She had also filed a written complaint with the administration about it. “Cleanliness is a big problem, not just in hostels but in all the girls’ washrooms on campus. I have personally faced many issues because of this. There are frogs around the drainage pipes and the tiles are broken,” she said.
Aditi said the common toilets in some hostels are even worse. “The bins are kept outside our rooms, and dogs often spill their contents at night. The food in the mess is also of poor quality,” she added.
She pointed out that sanitary napkin dispensers that were put up on the campus in 2019 following girl students’ demands have become dysfunctional and haven’t been repaired. “The machines don’t work and despite complaints nothing has been done. I used to live in L1 building, where there was only one water filter and it hardly worked. Now, I have moved to L8, which has five floors but there isn’t a single water filter. We have to go to L4 building to fill our bottles,” she said.
Despite complaining several times, nothing has been fixed and this has even affected students’ health. “There are big beehives right outside our rooms that have not been removed even after complaints. I was admitted to hospital with UTI because of these unhygienic conditions,” Aditi said. “Not just me, six to seven girls get infected every three months with dengue or UTI because of the hygiene and food quality issue,” she added.
“Girls who raise their voice are threatened with evacuation, and even though everyone is paying the same rent some hostel buildings have better facilities while some buildings don’t even have basic facilities like water filters,” another girl studying MA said, requesting anonymity.
“There are plenty of hygiene issues in the hostel, especially during rains. Often, fungus grows on walls. Stray dogs often enter the hostel corridors and create a lot of mess with litter. Whenever something gets stolen we file a complaint but no action is taken. We don’t even know if the CCTVs work,” she added.
Boys hostels are no better. Mayur Jawale, who lives in G5 building of the boys hostel, said, “The entire floor started leaking just after the first rain. The university claimed to have spent crores on renovation, but they only did some painting and plumbing work. We don’t have taps on basins, outlets get clogged, and there are no proper doors.”
“The rent in 2018 was Rs 700 for six months and during Covid they increased it to Rs 5,000 per year,” he added.
“We were moved from G5 to Hostel 9. The management promised that renovation would be done in two days, but nothing has been done. The ceiling still leaks, and some rooms don’t even have basic things like beds, lights, tables, or fans,” he said.
According to a student, there are 19 hostel buildings — 10 for girls and nine for boys, where 3,500 students live. But students want more hostels as 1,500 seats are reserved for first-year students every year.
Repeated attempts to contact Chief Rector Varsha Wankhede for her views were unsuccessful.
