NEW DELHI: Akshay (name changed), a 23-year-old civil service aspirant, lives in a cage-like accommodation in central Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar area, which recently bore witness to the tragic death of three aspirants by drowning in the flooded basement of a coaching centre’s building.
“We are charged exorbitantly for accommodation or libraries,” says Akshay, who hails from Himachal Pradesh and has been living in Delhi for a year.
Another aspirant, who is protesting over the deaths, claims that the city, where they come to study and fulfil their dreams, has failed to provide even the basic amenities.
“We come from different parts of the country with the sole motive to crack the UPSC civil service examination and are forced to live in miserable conditions”, the protestor, sitting outside the Rau’s IAS coaching institute, says.
Over 5,000 coaching centers are located in areas such as Old Rajinder Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, Mukherjee Nagar, Kalu Sarai, Satya Niketan, South Extension, and Karol Bagh.
The incident has not only highlighted the glaring lapses of the coaching institutes but also the daily struggles faced by the students, be it acquiring accommodation or getting the right environment to study. A 21-year-old woman named Niharika, who hails from Madhubani in Bihar, claimed that 90 per cent of private libraries operate in the basement area of coaching institutes, for which students have to pay ` 2000-3000 every month.
“It is not just paying this amount. We even have to pay a security amount which is the same as the monthly amount, which means paying at least Rs 4000-6000,” the aspirant says.
Now, if one desires to sit at the same seat in the library for the entire month, they might have to pay a double amount of money, which is at least Rs 4000-6000 per month. This amount is on top of the annual fees they pay to coaching institutes, which range between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 2 lakh or, at times, even more.
A distressed student hailing from Maharashtra and is a son of a farmer, remains hand-to-mouth as he has to pay a hefty monthly rent.
“Not all of us belong to rich families. Most of us come from humble backgrounds. But once we reach Delhi, we are charged excessively for all things, starting right from taking an accommodation,” the aspirant told this newspaper on the condition of anonymity.
Like Kota in Rajasthan, Old Rajinder Nagar is the hub for civil service preparations. It houses prominent coaching centres that have been functioning there for decades. The locality also fulfils other aspirants’ needs: a library, stationery shops, P-G, and tiffin services.
As one walks down the narrow lanes of the area, hordes of billboards and banners of coaching institutes guaranteeing success can be seen at every building.
But are those buildings safe and equipped to handle or prevent any calamity? Hundreds of students study in them at one time.
“We have no other options but to keep paying and suffering,” the Maharashtra resident adds.