Maharashtra revives student elections after 33 years
The Devendra Fadnavis-led Mahayuti government has taken a significant step to revive student union elections in Maharashtra after a 33-year gap. The last time college and university students in the state voted for their representatives was in 1993. On Thursday, the Higher and Technical Education Department constituted a 12-member committee headed by former Mumbai University Vice-Chancellor Prof Suhas Pednekar to work out a framework for the student union polls, with the panel given a month to submit its report.
Student union elections were banned in Maharashtra following campus violence in the early 1990s. In October 1989, NSUI student leader Owen D'Souza was killed outside a Mumbai college during campaigning. The state government subsequently passed the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994, to ban direct, competitive student elections, citing concerns about money and muscle power and the entry of external political organisations into campuses. This ban meant that an entire generation of students grew up without electing their Student Councils, which continued in various unelected forms.
The timing of the government's move comes as students have grown restive in recent months. In July, thousands of students participated in protests across Maharashtra over the NEET paper leak. In September, the death by suicide of 20-year-old IIT Bombay student Sahil Wakode prompted days of campus protests, with students demanding action and changes in the institute's grievance and disciplinary mechanisms.
