A group of female students of Dhaka University staged a sit-in and a symbolic hunger strike in front of the vice-chancellor鈥檚 residence on Monday morning, demanding accommodation facilities.
The protesting students initiated their sit-in and symbolic hunger strike at around 10:00am in front of the Dhaka University vice-chancellor residence.
At the sit-in, they chanted slogans including, 鈥業f there鈥檚 no seat in the halls, give us space in the VC鈥檚 bungalow,鈥� and 鈥楶rovide housing before bringing us to classrooms.鈥�
Saimun Nahar, a student from the university鈥檚 dance department, said that non-residential students at Dhaka University faced various problems due to living outside the halls of residence.
鈥榃e demand a one hundred per cent residential accommodation.鈥� she said.
Nuzia Hasin Rasha, a student from the department of Linguistics emphasised the need for long-term solutions such as building new halls of residence.
She also suggested renting buildings as temporary housing facilities for female students.
Expressing solidarity with the protesters, professor Robaet Ferdous from the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism said, 鈥楩emale students lack housing facilities, while the vice-chancellor lives in a large residence.鈥�
In the afternoon, the university鈥檚 pro-vice-chancellor professor Sayema Haque Bidisha, treasurer professor M Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, and proctor Saifuddin Ahmed talked to the protesters and assured them of solving the accommodation problem.
Following the assurances, the female students ended their protest at around 4:00pm.
The Dhaka University administration on Monday stated that a proposal had been submitted to the government for the approval of a project on building four residence halls for female students to mitigate their accommodation problem.
