Inequitable distribution of colleges, lack of housing among other issues raised at DDA consultation
New Delhi:
Lack of educational institutes and its inequitable distribution in the city was one of the primary concerns raised by the youth during a public consultation held by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for the preparation of the Master Plan of Delhi-2041.
Nearly 450 people, aged between 18 and 30, participated in the ‘Youth Sabha’ organised by DDA and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), which has been roped in to prepare the MPD-2041.
A senior DDA official said a lot of people raised the problem of lack of educational institutes in several parts of the city due to which they have to travel long distances.
“The lack of accessible education institutions for some city residents is of grave concern. For some of the youth, there are no colleges for up to 10 kms. This causes a lot of problems for them,” the official said.
A young man from Najafgarh mentioned how the nearest college is 25 kms away, requiring a travel time of nearly an hour one way to traverse that distance.
Others said most students staying in peripheral areas of Delhi end up travelling 25-40 kms one way to reach their schools/ colleges.
“This is not only time consuming, but also unsafe for young women as they don’t always get to travel by appropriate means of commute. It is only recently that Delhi Metro’s grey line is operational, which helps them to commute to other parts of Delhi, but due to Covid-19 that too was stopped for several months. In short, accessibility to these education imparting institutions has become very cumbersome, pushing the youth to drop out well before completing their courses. Most of them then settle for open universities and working side by side to sustain their home/ family,” said the DDA official.
Another issue pointed out by people was the problem of housing, especially for those who come from other states to Delhi for educational purposes.
DDA is holding these consultations with various stakeholders to get an idea about what residents of the city want, which can be addressed in the next MPD-2041.