‘Not enough room’: inside the ‘dabba ghars’ for students in Delhi

The street from Delhi University’s (DU) Arts Faculty towards Vijay Nagar, a student hub, is dotted with posters advertising rooms for as little as ₹3,500 in Christian Colony.

One such room is where Rahul, 25, a PhD student, lives. He turned into a narrow lane and climbed an unlit staircase to reach it. Barely six feet wide, the room is typical of the cramped spaces in Christian Colony where students find accommodation at relatively low rents.

“This area is like a slum full of DU students. People live here only because they cannot afford anything else,” said Mr. Rahul.

A stone’s throw from the university’s North Campus and several prominent colleges, Christian Colony offers some of the cheapest accommodation in the area. Rooms measuring about six feet by 12 feet are available for ₹3,000 to ₹3,500 a month. Slightly larger rooms cost about ₹4,000 and are often shared by two students. Five or six such rooms typically share a common washroom.

Almost all the students living in the area whom The Hindu spoke to said they were worried about their safety after the building collapse in Satya Niketan near the university’s South Campus, which killed seven persons. Students said they were forced to live here as there are very few seats in college hostels and other options are too expensive.

‘Everyone is scared’

In the colony, most buildings are four-storey structures and are cemented to adjacent buildings, sharing a common wall from top to bottom.

When asked if he feels safe in the building, Mr. Rahul said, “Everyone is scared and has been checking with others whether their building has pillars. In my building, I can’t spot any. My friend said his building doesn’t have any and he is scared.”

Mr. Rahul said he had been living in the colony for the past three years and had lived in even worse rooms. “I lived in a room in B Block for two years where I paid a rent of ₹3,000. But it was in a bad condition. Small bits of plaster from the roof fell down many times and once fell on my head too,” said Mr. Rahul, whose father is a farmer back in his village in Bihar.

Mostly students residing in the colony are from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and the northeastern States.

‘No space to run’

Piyush, 23, a master’s student, climbed an even narrower staircase with a railing to reach a slightly bigger room on the second floor of a building.

“Apart from fees, my family sends me about ₹6,000 every month, from which I have to pay ₹2,000 rent, pay for food and do everything else. I cannot afford a better room in Vijay Nagar, which will cost about ₹8,000 per month,” Mr. Piyush, a native of Kishanganj in Bihar, said.

Mr. Piyush said that the streets are so narrow that if something happens, there will be no space to even run.

Sonu Kumar, 22, who is also a master’s student, pays ₹3,500 a month for a room in the colony and used to share a room by paying around ₹2,000 a month. “Forget ventilation; even sunlight doesn’t reach our rooms. Students live here only because it is cheap,” he said, adding, “Why would anyone want to live in a dabba jaisa (box-like) room?”