How terrible is the cost of not having enough hostels in universities

When I was an undergraduate student of journalism at the University of Delhi, I paid less than Rs 50,000 as academic fees over a period of three years. The highly subsidised public university education system provides many middle and lower-class students an opportunity to acquire decent education.

But subsidising higher education shouldn't be merely limited to tuition fees. For three semesters I lived at a relative's house. Thereafter, I moved to an independent accommodation. For the first 12 months, I paid Rs 7,500 as monthly rent.

After a year, my landlord increased the monthly rent to Rs 9,000. I continued living at the same place for another eight months and by the time I graduated I had paid more than Rs 1,50,000 as rent.

Contrary to what many might believe, I was living in a single room with just an attached washroom. There was no kitchen where meals could be cooked. The room was far from being luxurious but sufficient to support a single person.

The absence of a kitchen necessitated the need for having food from outside which added onto the costs.

Many public universities in India including Delhi University (DU) do not have enough number of hostel seats. Several constituent colleges of the much acclaimed DU do not have hostels altogether. Some just have either a boy's or a girl's hostel, that too with a very few seats.

As a result of this, students end up paying double or triple the amount of their tuition fees as rent. It is often not easy to find an accommodation which can be an independent room or a paying guest accommodation. Brokers exploit young students and overcharge them for their services.

World Bank estimates suggest that the per capita income of Indians stood at $ 1,631 in 2014. That's less than even a lakh rupees! It stands at Rs 97,860 to be precise. If that's the amount of money the average Indian is earning then he surely can't send his or her daughter for higher education.

In 12 months alone, I paid Rs 90,000 as rent. Even if you live in the cheapest accommodation, then too, it wouldn't cost you less than Rs 3,000 a month. Water and electricity bills are charged additionally at most places. So the student would pay somewhere around Rs 40,000 annually.

If the family has only one earning member and he/she earns as much as the national average, then he/she would be spending nearly half of their income in paying the yearly rent of their son or daughter. This, obviously, does not include the tuition fees.

That's how horrendous is the cost of not having enough hostel seats in public universities. If an average person living in a small city wants to send his daughter or son to study in Delhi, then he or she needs to get prepared to shell out a huge sum of money on living because our public universities haven't made enough hostels.

For most common people (who once again earn as much as our national average in terms of per capita income i.e $ 1,631), it wouldn't be possible to pay the rent of a room in a city like Delhi. This would mean that most small town girls and boys from a humble background wouldn't be able to acquire higher education in Delhi.

They would either have to take admission in lesser attractive colleges and universities in their respective towns or worse even drop out. In a country like ours, higher education subsidy cannot be limited to tuition seats. Students have to be provided with affordable on-campus accommodation which would include daily meals. Such a facility should necessarily be extended to most students and not a fortunate few.

The right to hostel accommodation belongs to everyone who has left his/her city and come to acquire education in a metro city like Delhi. It's an inalienable right.

Governments should do everything in their capacity to increase the number of hostel seats in public universities so as to ensure that higher education is truly subsidised and not a privilege for those who can afford to pay.