Bengaluru: Hundreds of students of National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, staged a night-long protest on campus over lack of amenities in women’s hostels, second-class treatment of girl students and “blatant misogyny” in the room-allotment process.They gathered at the basketball court around 10pm Tuesday, and protested till 4am Wednesday. Male students came out in large numbers in support of their classmates.Prof Sudhir Krishnaswamy, vice-chancellor of the premier law school, met the students on Wednesday afternoon and listened to their grievances. A student said the V-C said he would respond in writing in 7-10 days. During protest, the varsity registrar and campus director met them, but there was no immediate resolution.The 23-acre Bengaluru campus, which came under fire in the past over hostel facilities, has not been able to upgrade infrastructure in step with rapid expansion of its programmes which are attracting more students. The campus now has 1,734 students.The leafy campus has five hostels for men and six for women, but allotment of rooms is steeped in mystery. Mismatch in facilities is another sore point. While men’s hostels have 75 double bedrooms, women have 40. Instead, women get 93 three-tier bunk beds while men have only 18. Men have more than triple the three-bed cubicle rooms and eight times the non-bunk triple sharing rooms than women.In a letter to the administration, students said the ratio of men to women (and other gender minorities) is almost equal. Yet, there is a severe disparity in bunk beds. “It’s clear as a cloudless day that women are being treated like cattle on this campus. There’s no water in most of the women’s hostels for three days,” the letter said.The list of complaints included: Cots pushed to windows to make space for more beds, no ventilation, fans not enough or not working, power outages, irregular water supply. The condition in the hostel is “pathetic”, said another student.Students raised concerns about construction on campus while academic activities are under way. Recently, a concrete slab fell in a common area. While no one was injured, students said it raised grave safety concerns.Under the ‘NLSIU Inclusion and Expansion Plan 2021-25′, student intake was to increase from 660 students to 2,200 by 2028-29. The total intake for flagship five-year integrated LLB programme is 310 as against 80 earlier.In 2024, TOI had reported on the lack of hostel rooms for local students. At that time, the university had said it had increased the number of hostel rooms from 552 to 1,152 in three years and was awaiting further expansion.The campus expansion has been a hurdle for NLSIU. In 2024, with great difficulty, the varsity got seven acres of land from the state govt in exchange for 10 supernumerary seats for Kannadigas. The university had asked for 17 acres.
