Industrial Training Institutes or ITIs are institutions to render industrial training to students who are going to become productive forces in different industries across the country. The course is given to post-secondary students ranging for a year to two based on the trade. The government ITIs come under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. These ITIs face the same fate/set of problems as other government institutions in the country where the lack of funding adversely affects the infrastructure and the education of students. Similarly, the Government ITI college of Peenya in Bangalore witnesses many gross violations of student rights, some of which may even fall under the category of crime.
The college is just corridoring Peenya Industrial Area, one of the largest industrial areas in Asia. The students here predominantly come from working class families. Most of them work after college hours due to the economic necessities of their families.
The students recently organised and agitated against the mishaps happening in this campus. Basic instruments required for the courses like voltmeter and ammeter were not provided by the college, thus putting a grave burden on the already economically weaker students to buy textbooks and other instruments. There is no library despite having 1500+ students. The college also has very few benches and resting places. They also questioned the lack of adequate number of washrooms and water filter systems.
The college has an extremely feudal authoritative management where students are treated brutally and beaten with pipes and rods by certain lecturers close to the administration. The college staff teach for only two hours out of eight hours a day. The students are given so many assignments to write for the rest of the day that some even said they finish a ball pen in two days. This way, they are pressurized by the work evasive faculty. Moreover, students have reported instances of extortion by faculty members to conduct rituals like Saraswati pooja and Ayudha pooja on campus. They also rely on students’ money to repair the instruments instead of government funds. The faculty acts in this manner out of impunity since the students here are from marginalized sectionsofthesociety.
The college violates the basic human rights of students. They are abused with filthy language by sections of the faculty and are humiliated on a daily basis. The system is built in such a way that they are trained to work like machines without questioning while losing their human dignity. Separate well-equipped washrooms are maintained for the staff that students are barred from using, while the washrooms of students do not even have water supply, thus maintaining an apartheid policy.
These issues faced by students can be traced back to the neoliberal policies of the government. The lack of funding in maintaining the infrastructure poses a huge threat to the education of students. In Peenya ITI, the double burden of public fund crunch and a feudal repressive management weigh on the students. The conscious weakening of government educational institutions in order to help the flourishing of private institutions needs to be stopped. Only through this can the lower-middle sections of the society, who constitute the majority of the population in the country, get their basic right to education. It is through an elected student body alone that students can have a say in educational institutions. The students are now in a subjugated position as the power lies with the management who often misuse it. It is essential for students to form their own student bodies to keep this in check. They must strive to ensure a democratic environment in educational institutions and student bodies play a vital role in doing so by addressing student concerns collectively.
