Another tweet highlighting the apathy and deplorable state of management at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has surfaced. According to a tweet from IIT Bombay’s Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Cell (APPSC), students studying at IIT-B are supposed to pay Rs. 1750 as medical fee and Rs. 250 as student accident insurance fund every semester. This payment is being made by the students based on a promise made by the management of the institution that a medical insurance policy document for them would be prepared and distributed soon. And yet, despite paying a total of Rs. 2000 as insurance fee (break-up provided above), there exists no provision for medical insurance policy for institute students.
A post from APPSC IIT Bombay on Twitter said, “There is no medical insurance policy for students at @iitbombay even though students pay Rs. 1750 as medical fee and Rs. 250 as insurance fee. The procedure for availing of medical expenses is completely arbitrary and opaque. Despite the promise of making a proper document, nothing is done.”
The post further said, “As a result of fee hike protests in August 2022, it was agreed by administration that the current system was arbitrary and opaque. It was promised to students that a medical insurance policy document will be prepared and circulated soon.”
The post can be viewed here:
Notably, a previous RTI (Right to Information) petition filed by the APPSC revealed that 19 of the 23 IITs have dedicated cells for the welfare of historically marginalized Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC-ST) students, out of which, sixteen remain inoperable. According to RTI data received by the APPSC, 18 cells have no funds allocated, and 16 have not held any events after August 2022. IT is essential to note that IIT BHU, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Hyderabad, and IIT Bhubaneswar are among the 16 institutes.
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