Yes, Miss President! A Proposal For App To Solve Accommodation Woes

New Delhi: Anshita Chauhan of Shimla, student at Delhi University, had problems finding lodgings on joining Daulat Ram College, which has no hostel. She approached a paying-guest accommodation owner, paying a significant sum online before realised she had been scammed. This bitter experience inspired her to ask the university authorities to create an app with a database of living quarters to aid freshers. She made this decision after becoming Delhi University Students’ Union president for a single day.Inspired by Anil Kapoor's film Nayak, with its concept of a chief minister for a day, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad-led DUSU initiated the ‘10 Days, 10 Women Students, 10 DUSU Presidents’ event. The women selected to become DUSU president for a day are those who were deemed the winners of the essay contest on ‘The Role of Women in Making Viksit Bharat’ organised by the union on International Women’s Day.The students will be at the helm of DUSU on each day of the ongoing Chaitra Navratri festival, which honours the nine incarnations of goddess Shakti.Sakshi Patel of Satyawati College was nervous yet empowered to be the president on the first day of Navratri on April 9. The girl from a Jabalpur village proposed a book bank of study material and books donated by students that other students could borrow free of charge. “After exams, our study materials go to waste. This way, we can curb paper waste and assist students too. My principal has green-lighted the plan,” she smiled.The 10 students, who had no prior involvement in student politics, gained valuable insights on DU, secured leadership skills and implemented micro-level changes in their respective colleges.Preeti Singh Nain of Kirori Mal College, for instance, proposed to the dean of student welfare that enabling units be enhanced in all DU colleges. These units serve as a bridge between college administration and students with disabilities, promoting accessible infrastructure, making scribes and Braille facilities available before exams, and organising programmes for students with disabilities. “North Campus colleges mostly have active enabling units, but my aim is to push the off-campus colleges to also strengthen their’s. Satyawati College has a single lift that has been out of operation for months, causing inconvenience to PwD students,” said Nain, who is coordinator of the enabling unit of her college. She was the president on April 10.On Friday, the president was Akshita Johar of Ramjas College, who tackled the unhygienic conditions in the college canteen and kitchen and suggested the formation of a food committee to conduct regular inspections of these facilities. She also fought for improved street lighting and the installation of accessible sanitary pad vending machines on the university campus. “I asked the proctor to install proper streetlights because it is quite dark outside many DU colleges and incidents of phone snatching and eve teasing are common along the route from the college to the metro station,” said Johar.Several of these initiatives have already received the approval of the respective college principals, demonstrating the potential impact of the one-day DUSU presidents’ ideas.Deeksha Lingayat of Venkateshwara College, who plans to propose career counselling services in the colleges, said, “I learnt about this initiative after a friend sent me an ABVP reel and asked me to apply for this essay contest because she knows I write well. I didn’t expect to be selected because there were 5,000 participants,” said Isha Awana, who is scheduled to assume the day-long presidency in a day or two. “It feels great to sit in the DUSU office. One feels responsible and to think about how to resolve college problems and to contribute positively to university life.”