Hundreds of students across various campuses of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) staged an ‘institutional strike’ on Tuesday against the Institute’s recent cuts in fellowships allotted to SC, ST and OBC students. The strike was called by the TISS students Union and students from all four campuses of the institute — Mumbai, Tuljapur, Hyderabad and Guwahati protested. At the TISS Mumbai campus, several students assembled from Tuesday morning and boycotted classes demanding that the institute revokes its decision of scrapping a component of the fee waiver for these students. Close to 1,200 students at the institute, who are eligible for the Government of India Post-Matric Scholarship (GOI-PMS), would have to bear their hostel and dining expenses as the institute in a circular issued in May 2017 stated that it would not be able to support these expenses, owing to fund crunch. “The Institute’s decision to stop funding dining and hostel expenses of students has impacted students really hard. Despite negotiations with the administration, there seems to be no relief. We have thus decided to continue our protest until the new notification is revoked,” said Fahad Ahmed, General Secretary of the TISS student union. Dr Shalini Bharat, acting director of the institute, said: “For the last several years, the institute was supporting students by waiving off these fees, which are technically coming from government aid. However, with current debt running into crores, we can no longer support it. The administration is willing to talk to the students to come up with the best possible solution.” EXPENSIVE AFFAIR Nearly 1,200 students at the institute, who are eligible for the Government of India Post-Matric Scholarship (GOI-PMS), would have to bear their hostel and dining expenses

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