Five of renowned public universities can provide only a fourth of their girl students with residence in halls, forcing many to share seats in the halls. A half of the girl students need to live outside the campuses by spending money lot more than others do.
In the face of growing accommodation crisis, girl students need to live in groups in rented flats and houses where security is often poor and they need spend more money on such accommodation, adding to their educational expenses.
Authorities of Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Jahangirnagar universities and Shahjalal University of Science and Technology said that they had the capacity to accommodate 11,300 girl students in the halls but the total number of girl students enrolled on the universities is 42,300.
According to the University Grants Commission, about 22,300 girl students live in halls in the universities, sharing seats with others or being crammed in large rooms such television or games rooms, leaving about 20,000 others to fend for themselves outside the campuses.
About 5,800 girl students of five more universities — Jagannath University in Dhaka, Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur, Pabna Science and Technology University, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahamn Science and Technology University in Gopalganj and Barisal University — suffer more as the universities do not have any accommodation facilities for girl students.
There are 34 public universities in the country.
Male students also face similar problems but there is a particular concern about the vulnerability of female students living in insecure private accommodations.
The major educational institutions say that they have not enough funds to build the halls required to provide girls with residence.
The University Grants Commission chair, AK Azad Chowdhury, said that such an acute accommodation crisis was hampering academic activities of girl students and urged to mitigate the sufferings by building halls on public-private partnership schemes.
According to the latest UGC Report 2011, the number of female students in public universities is increasing.
The report says that about 44 per cent students of public universities are female while the percentage was about 41 in 2010.
In Dhaka University, there are at least 17,000 female students and the university can accommodate
only 4,300 of them in halls of residence but in all more than 9,000 female students live in the halls.
Rajshahi University has the capacity to accommodate 2,900 female students but in all 5,300 of the total of 12,000 female students live in the halls.
Chittagong University has the capacity to accommodate 1,500 female students but 3,200 of the total 6,500 girl students live in the halls.
In Jahangirnagar University, there are 4,800 female students and the university can accommodate only 2,070 students in halls. But 4,000 students live in the halls sharing seats with others.
In Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, there are 2,000 female students and 800 of them live in halls having the capacity for 500 students.
Because of such acute accommodation crisis, students are forced to live in large rooms meant for playing games or watching television and sleep floors in the halls.
Female students who do not get seats in university halls live in ‘messes,’ which are rented houses outside the campuses, and face difficulties for lack of water, transport and security.
They also said that female students faced severe accommodation crisis even outside the campus as owners were often not willing rent out houses to girls. Although male students also face similar problems they have some advantages as they can live here and there.
Farzana Rahman, a student of Dhaka University, said that she along with her friend lived in rooms sub let to them by the tenant at Azimpur. ‘Our education is seriously hampered as we need to cook meals three times a day,’ she said.
Sharmin Akter, a student of Chittagong University, told New Age that they had to face problems such as low-quality food and the unavailability of water.
Female students complained about a common problem that they were virtually left with no money after paying much higher amount in rent for private accommodation and the cost of food and transport.
‘Only a small amount of money is left after paying the house rent, food charge, tuition fees and fares for transport,’ said Rawshan Ara, a Jagannath University student living at Kamalapur in Dhaka.
‘We often fail to catch buses. This is a big problem for female students who need to live in rented flats at a distance from the campus,’ Kamrun Nahar, a Dhaka University student living at Mirpur 10, said.
Parents said that they were particularly worried about their daughters studying in universities as they needed to live in rented houses.
‘I passing days in anxiety as my daughter has to live outside the campus,’ Mashiur Rahman, of Sirajganj, said. His daughter is a student of Rajshahi University.
Former Dhaka University vice-chancellor SMA Faiz said that authorities should provide all students with accommodation facilities.
The incumbent DU vice-chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique said that accommodation crisis was there in all educational institutions. ‘We have built the Sufia Kamal Hall and other buildings to mitigate the crisis of female students. We hope that new halls being built will further mitigate the problem.’
The Rajshahi University pro-vice-chancellor, Chowdhury Sarowar Jahan, said, ‘All our efforts goes vain because of fund shortage.’ He said that a hall, still being constructed, could mitigate the suffering in the future.
The Jahangirnagar University registrar, Mohammad Ali, said that construction work of two halls for girl students was under way.
The UGC chairman said that accommodation crisis in universities should be resolved to achieve the goal of gender parity in higher education.
He also blamed fund constraints for an adequate number of halls not being built for girl students.
‘The government, alumni and philanthropists should come forward to resolve the accommodation crisis for girls in universities,’ he added.
-With New Age input
