TRIVANDRUM, 24 July 2004 — Hundreds of students took to the streets here yesterday after a Dalit student committed suicide after failing to pay tuition fee demanded by a government-run engineering college.
Rajni S. Anand, 20, ended her life jumping from the seventh floor of a government building in the state capital Thursday after the college authorities expelled her for not paying fees and rejected her application to join another college that offered free education.
In the state legislative assembly, stalled by the protesting leftist opposition, Chief Minister A.K. Antony expressed his condolences and ordered a judicial inquiry.
The protesters attacked the state secretariat and a federally controlled bank branch that refused loan to Rajni and set government vehicles on fire.
Rajni’s brother Shine said the computer engineering student at the College of Engineering, Adoor, jumped from the terrace of the Kerala State Housing Board building just behind the state secretariat after she felt she had no future. She was the daughter of day laborer Sivanandan.
She was forced to discontinue her studies last year as her family could not afford the exorbitant fees of the “self-financing colleges”. Though the father tried to get bank loans for her studies, it did not work, he said.
Finance Minister P. Chitambaram last week instructed the Reserve Bank of India, the federal banking regulator, to disburse educational loans of up to 750,000 rupees on personal surety, without mortgage.
Rajni belonged to the downtrodden Scheduled Caste community but she was not eligible for any concessions at the time of admission as the state government decided to extend the benefits to the students of the community studying in self-financing professional colleges only this year.
Police said Rajni jumped to her death around 5 p.m. Thursday. She died on the spot. They traced her identity using the college identity-card found in her bag.
The suicide comes as a body blow to Antony amidst reports that Congress President Sonia Gandhi was planning to replace him with former Home Minister Vayalar Ravi.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) legislator Sreemathi Teachers said the student committed suicide as she belonged to a poor family. The girl was a victim of the commercialization of education by the Antony government, she said.
