EVEN AS Delhi University (DU) is processing hostel projects at a slow speed, expansion of accommodation in its affiliated colleges is also not moving at the expected pace. Funding, space constraints, land-use restrictions, and a lack of resources are to be among major limitations.
While the university's hostels have 3,422 seats, over 80 colleges affiliated to it collectively have 3,788 hostel seats. This is still woefully short of number of students enrolled in the university — a large chunk of whom come from other states. On average, roughly 2.8 lakh students enrol in undergraduate programmes annually, and roughly 11,600 students enrol in PG programmes.
The shortfall has been a red flag for years. In October 2020, citing a massive increase in enrolment after expansion of student intake to accommodate EWS quota, senior officials at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College flagged need for urgent expansion of infrastructure. Six years later, it still functions without a housing facility for its students, and caters to both evening and morning shift students.
South Campus colleges such as Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College also cite regulatory roadblocks because they are located on protected forest area of South Central Ridge.
Numbers at a glance against DDA norms (MPD-2021/2041: 4.0 Ha / 9.88 acres): Sri Venkateswara has 15 acres (+5.12 surplus), Jesus & Mary 14.1 acres (+4.22), Gargi 13 acres (+3.12), while Ram Lal Anand, Aryabhatta and College of Arts & Commerce have only 5 acres each (-4.88 deficit).
Principal voices are blunt. Aryabhatta's Manoj Sinha points to Tree Act 1994 — even shrubs need protection — and CPWD enforcement. At Indraprastha College for Women, Grade-I heritage status blocks structural alterations. At Maitreyi, limited 103 beds and funding. As one former VC said, many colleges were reluctant due to financial and administrative resources, and in earlier days bus services were preferred over hostels.
DU added students via EWS but never added beds. The 10-acre DDA norm itself is a fiction for South Campus. Colleges with 5 acres cannot build, colleges with 15 acres don't have trust or funds — "We are a convent college. We don't have any trust as such to fund such massive infrastructure," says Jesus & Mary's Molly K A. The result: DU outsources housing to PGs, where safety and cost hit women hardest. Buddy systems and vertical expansion are band-aids. Without a central funding model for hostels, DU will remain a university that admits India but houses only Delhi.