PaRCha – JNU – AISA – 2014 ID-6645
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them should be allowed to hold any administrative office. .
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Active steps for gender sensltlsation programme have been initiated by a monitoring body of teachers and students following the positive recommendations of 10-member committee. .
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After continuous intervention by the JNUSU, three Sanitarypad dispensing machines have also been approved for installation in academic complex and near girls’ hostels. .
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Relaxation of the Eligibility Criteria from 55% to 50% for OSC candidates in NET-JRF and Faculty appointment, due to legal intervention (byJNU student Nirala), as well as our protests and interventions at UGC. .
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Release of additional lists for NET-JRF for 2013 June exam: UGC’s faulty evaluation of June 2013 NET/JRF exam was promptly prot~stedbyA!SA and JNUSU, forcing fresh evaluation and release of additional lists in October 2013 benefitting hundreds ofwronged students. .
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Sustained Struggle Against UPSC’s Discriminatory Policies: The .
AISA-Ied JNUSU has organized several protest actions against .
UPSC’s discriminatory deds1on of scrapping Oassical and .
‘Foreign’ languages like Arabic and PeiSian, French, German, .
Spanish, Japanese, Chinese etc from UPSC syllabus and review .
of CSAT that tamper rhe level playing field for Arts, Humanities .
and different language candidates, particularly from non-.
English trained and rural backgrounds. .
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For Scrapping of lyngdoh recommendations, a huge Mass Deputation to the 01, Supreme Court was held in November 2013 to expedite the pending JNU stodents’ -case for consideration by a Constitution bench ofthe SC. .
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Repeated and Vigilant interventions to ensure Rights of contract workers in the campus: regarding timely payment of wages, bonuses, correction of ESI/PF irregularities, grant of maternity leave to provision of safety gears. JNUSU held several Pfcamps for all contract workers in the campus and unearthed a massive embeulement of PF money which is deducted from .
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the salaries of workers every month. .
Thus, during the 2013-14 JNUSU tenure, each of our initiatives .
and achievements constitute a creative model of students’ .
politics, ofsignificantpolicy level interventions, inspired by the .
ide.lls of expandmg democracy and social inclusion in higher .
education. At a time when higher education is being turned into .
an exclusive enclave of a few through fees hikes and .
commercialisation and campus democracy is being curtailed, .
when knowledge generation and dissemination is being .
tailored to corporate interests, AISA has challenged this trend .
with newer imagination and action. .
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AISA’s Uninterrupted Initiatives for a More .
Inclusive JNU .
The initiatives and significant achievements over the last year berr"lltion AISA-Ied JNUSUs, through lasttwo decades,.
arenoa a · .
have envisaged and fought for landmark policy-level changes .
which have had far-reaching implications In JNU and beyond. .
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R storation of Deprivation Points: The very first AISA-Ied .
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J~USU in 1993-1994, fought to restore the unique ‘deprivation point’ system in JNU’s admission system, ensuring greater spac:e for women and students from back\.vard areas. .
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correcting "Cut -off" M ischief in OBC reservation: When OBC reservation became a law, in 2008, there was a dangerous conspiracy to scuttle the actual implementation by way of faulty interpretation of the Supreme Court’s prescribed ‘cut-off’ criterion for OBC students. From day one, AISA was the only student organisation which recognized this casteist manipulation and fought a protracted struggle including a legal battle. Our position was upheld by the judiciary, first in the Delhi High Court in 2010 and then in the Apex Court in 2011. .
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The judgement had country-wide ramifications, as it put an end to the practice of misinterpreting "cut-off" criterion by all central universities to scuttle reservations. .
This struggle against the administration was made all the more difficult by the highly irresponsible role of other organisations like SFI and DSU, which while claiming to be ‘pro-reservation’, refused to even acknowledge the centrality of the ‘cut-off problem till as late as March 2010, and instead ran a vitriolic campaign against AISA and JNUSU. Despite this hostility, we never got deflected in our efforts of documenting the violations through RTis, mobilising faculty opinions and numerous protestactions. After the historic 7th Sep 2010 Delhi HC verdict, SFI was so shocked that AISA’s position had been validated by the HC, that it did not even welcome the verdict for 48 hours! Thus, a struggle that began with AISA’s initiatives in JNU and fought against all odds, led to a verdict of national significance that salvaged and defended OBC reservations .
across the country. .
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Recognition of Madarsas: During 2007-08, AISA-Ied JNUSU spearheaded the movement for the Recognition of madrassa certificates in admissions forcing the JNU Academ1c Council in 2008 to give recogmt1on to Madrassa certificates, thereby ending 40 years of discriminatory treatment and communal .
commonsense. .
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Scrapping of Nestle Outlet, defeating Corporate take-over of campus spaces: In April 2004, a 24×7 Nestle outlet was set up on campus as a result of a dubious agreement between the SF I-.
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led JNUSU of 2002-2003 and the JNU administration. AISA immediately started a popular movement against this Nestle Outlet. In 2004..05, AISA-Ied JNUSU gave voice to the anti-corporatization spirit of the campus and demanded immediate scrapping of the Nestle outlet. In a historic UGBM during January 2005, 544 students voted against the Nestle outlet. Wile SFI. wttb 114 cadres stood In shameful def~nseoffi~. JNU administration was forced to scrap its contract with Nestle. The present 24X7 dhaba and North-east dhaba came up in the erstwhile Nestle spot. AISA has always proclaimed that shops and campus spaces should be allotted to socially deserving sections rather than tocorporate Interests . .
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During 2009-10, AISA-Ied JNUSUs have prevented renting out ofthe ecologicallyfragile PSR rocks to advertisement agencies, resisted the attempt to impose user charge for electricity from students, and prevented an absurd plan to set up a massive ‘Food Court’ with 10 canteens near the JNU library which would have entailed massive deforestation. .
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Autonomous Body on Gender harassment: Long before the Supreme Court’s Vishakha Judgement (1997), which made creation of a Committee Against Sexual harassment in every workplace mandatory, AISA raised the issue ofan autonomous committee on Sexual harassment in JNU in July 1996 itself. Because ofthis early debate and prepared ground, JNU became one of the first universities to create its GSCASH in 1999, immediatelyafter the SCverdict. .
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Bekhauf Azadi: Dttrlng the post 16111 December Delhi gang rape protests, AISA played a pivotal role in shaping the discourse of the movement-from patriarchal "protection" to Freedom Without Fear(Bekhauf Azadi). .
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Workers’ Rights: AISA-Ied JNUSU led a historic movements In 2006-2007 for ensuring workers’ rights and minimum wages in JNU. Consequently, the JNU administration was forced to rewrite all its illegal contracts and ensure the payment of minimum wages. JNUSU representatives led a large movement in solidarity with the protesting workers, and during the course of this movement, JNUSU office bearers were rusticated for supporting the workers of JNU In their struggle. Interestingly, SFI "dissociated" ttseif from the movement and demanded Proctorial Enquiry against the rusticated student protestor~! However, the movement changed the lexicon of student politics and brought into its ambit, the rights of those workers whose silent unseen toil keeps this campus going. .
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Bridging .JNU with Outside Struggles During 2013-14: In December 2013, the residents of Delhi’s Mansarovar Park slum were violently evicted in the wee hours of the morningwithout even a notice. AISAand JNUSU .
reached Mansarovar Park to protest apinst the evictlon,help8d .
the residents rebuild their homes and collected warm clothesliic) .
blankets for dlstributionamong the residents. .
On the eve of Modi’s first election rally in Delhi, JNUSU alonaWfth .
J N UTA led a Citizens’ Marchfor Secularism inthecity, demandiJJ .
justice for the victims of Muzaffarnagar communal riots ana b,1 .
defence ofsecularism. JNUSU and AISA fact-finding teams vislwt: . .
Muzaffar:nagar several times and, besides expressing solidarity .
with the victims, raised funds to helpwith rehabilitation ~lJeiaf. .
aid of Muzaffamagar riot survivors. When 67 ~h11Jlri student$ · .
were evieted from their hostel in a Meerut university, JN~ .
protested o~tside the UP Bhawan aaalnst communallsatlon, OJ .
sports spaces. .
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During the 2014 Loksabha elections, JNUSU led a sustained 12 .
days long Ground Zero Campaign in and al’ound Varanasl to .
contest the hype and myth ofmedia manufactured 1Modi mama’. .
AISA-Ied JNUSU stood firmly in solidarity with members of the LGBTQIH community after the Supreme Court’s shocldna decision to retain Sec 377 which re-crlmlnallses homosexuality. On the first anniversary of the 16th December anti-sang rapt movement, JNUSU organised a massive March and NightVIall to keep the flame ofFreedom without Fear alive. The NightVigil was attended byseveral activists as well as SonI Sori the voice against custodial rape and state-sponsored sexual assault on Adivasi women. In the wake of gruesome murder of a student frOm Aronachaf Pradesh and other cases of racial and sexual assaults on Northeast people in thec(ty, AISA and JNUSU relentlesslytook to the streets and firmly stood in solidarity with the~orth-East students in their struggfe. AI,SA was the first to recognise and raise · a voice against the ractst witch-hunting of African women i,fl Delhi’s ~hirki v.illage by a~lynch mob led by AAP ministerSomnath Bharti. AlSA and JNUSlJ consistently protested. aplnst serial acquittals in cases of Dallt massacres in laxmanpur-BaJhe and Bathanitola. AISA held a countrywide signature campaign demanding justice for Bathanltola-Bathe massacre and held a Jan-Sunwai at Jantar Man tar with the victim families. JNUSU and AISA relentlessly stood with the families of Dafits from Bhapna. who were evicted from their villages for protesting against the gang-rapeof Dalit women by men ofthe dominant caste. Protests were also held against the shocking rape and hanging of two young girls in Badaun. .
JNUSU proteste<l outside the Special Cell of Delhi police against repeated witch-hunting of Muslim youth in Jamia Nagar. last September on the anniversary of the Batla House fake encounter incident, AJSA held a March in Batla House for justice against minority witch-hunt. .
JNUSU protested against fake terror charges on six innocent Muslims in the Akshardham case after the 16 May 20141andmark. .
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