The Rajasthan government needs to regulate hostels for the protection of students

The incident in which a coaching student died after falling from his hostel room’s window has refocused attention on the 3,000 hostels that are mushrooming in Kota and housing about 80,000 students (during peak months).

The second-most crucial element in creating a multimillion-dollar coaching industry in Kota is hostel regulation, which is not even mentioned in the planned Rajasthan Coaching Institutes (Control and Regulation) Bill 2023.

Gulab Chand Kataria, the leader of the opposition, emphasized the need for regulation of hostels and coaching facilities for the benefit of students.

“Yes, it’s critical to have rigorous regulations on hostels that cover matters such as fees, safety, and security. According to Kataria, the state and municipal governments must jointly protect the rights of students and routinely inspect the dorms. The occurrence, however, is unique, as the remainder of the hostels in Kota operates without any oversight in residential colonies.

Dev Swaroop, former vice chancellor of Rajasthan University and Baba Bhimrao Ambedkar Law University and additional secretary of the University Grants Commission (UGC), who was involved in numerous measures pertaining to higher education, urged for the injunction of provisions for the hostels as well.

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The committee that produced the law was instructed to create a regulation on coaching institutes; therefore, there are no provisions for hostels in the current bill. For students enrolled in coaching institutes, the expert committee should ideally enforce regulations regarding dorms, food and caterers, and transportation, according to Swaroop.

The government should cover these students under some of its programs, such as the Mukhyamantri Chiranjeevi Swasthya Yojana and insurance schemes, he argued, in order to establish a relationship with these students who are bringing in money for the state government.