For Lalit Kumar Saini in Peeplu gaon, Tonk Rajasthan, the only reason to not give up higher education is the promise of expected funds from a crowdfunding campaign, which was initiated by his batchmates in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

The crowdfunding campaigns started in June-July by students of different centers of JNU. Different campaigns had set different targets, which they could not meet in August hence deadlines have been extended to September.

Some of the campaigns have partially disbursed the funds to ensure students can buy data packs and not lose on classes. The donors can contribute on Ketto or through an online payment mode.

Waiting for funds

Saini, an MA student in SIS, Jawaharlal Nehru University has so far got Rs 7,000 from the crowdfund started by the students of his school and he has been told more will come, “I am expecting Rs 5000 in next disbursal, till then I am getting secondhand laptops from repair stores, and working on them on a trial basis to see which one will run long. I will have to bargain to get the devices. This is going to help in having money to buy data packs and have an uninterrupted education, which was a problem earlier,” said Saini.

He has not been able to attend all the classes due to lack of devices and inability to spend the funds on data packs, “Since a lot of data gets consumed in online education, we have to use it optimally, I have not been a regular due to this constraint,” he added.

“Ideally institutions should have called BPL students to hostels and given them online education facilities. But they think everyone is from the same background,” he added.

Another JNU student, Amit Ranjan Alok from Jharkhand, who lost his father in 2016, has got Rs 8000 from the crowdfunding campaign. He is expecting more funds to come so that he can buy a tablet.

“Online education threw unexpected expenses on us, we are lucky to have batch mates to help us out in these times. I have missed classes to be able to optimally use the data packs. And the classes that I attended so many students would be missing due to the digital divide,” Ranjan said.

Both of the students news18.com spoke to, have appreciated their batch mates who thought of helping them, as institutions “failed to,” they said.

In their villages the students saw how some of their peers were finding it difficult to resume education after initially giving up due to the digital divide, “Ek baar choot jaata hai toh mushkil hai wapas institutions me aana, main aisa nahi chahta” said Saini. (Once we leave education it becomes difficult to restart from the same point. I don’t want that for myself).

Lukewarm response

The two campaigners news18.com spoke to said that “due to lukewarm response” they have extended the deadline.”

CPS started the campaign in mid-July, they were intending to raise Rs 5 lakhs, but so far have Rs 30,000, and it will now end in September end. “We have raised an abysmal amount,” said Shweta Singh from CPS who is part of the campaign and has extended the deadline now but “we will continue to work on it,” she added.

They will start distributing the funds only after closing the crowdfunding campaign. The priority as of now is to provide funds for data packs to those who need it. There are 10 students seeking help for data packs and 14 want devices from CPS.

The student activists were told to “focus on their studies” when they started the campaign but then they went ahead and ensured that those who can’t afford it also focus on their studies.

MA student in SIS, Ali Yawar, who has extended the deadline for their crowdfunding project to September 1, said, “There were centers pitching in with the fundraisers so we started to do the same. The institutional support has been very limited to the point of being non-existent that the students decided to come together and help each other out. We are working to raise funds for 10 students.” They have given some amount raised (Rs 1 lakh) to the beneficiaries so that they can spend on their digital education needs, and are expecting to complete the target in the extended phase.

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