At Ground Zero of the quota protests
Text and Photographs: Sheela Bhatt
Anger, energy and ideas fill the air at what can be called the Ground Zero of the anti-reservation stir -- New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
This is where the pulse of the anti-reservation protests lies, with members of the Youth for Equality group opposing the government's quota for Other Backward Classes in higher educational institutions.
On Monday, there were 88 students on hunger strike. Over the past week, more than 45 students have collapsed.
As soon as Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh spoke of implementing the 93rd Amendment passed by Parliament last year on April 7, 2006, resident doctors and medical students met informally to discuss the issue. Slowly, the number of meetings increased, more and more colleges and students joined what was to become in days a national agitation.
Also See: The reservation issue