According to students, this new form of protest signifies the problems of accommodation faced by them and problems they face while going through even the daily routine of living, such as taking a bath and brushing teeth.

The two-day demonstration near the Vice-Chancellor’s lawn will involve the daily participation of around 50 students. They also plan to place their bedding and sleep there through the night.

Sandeep Singh, president of JNUSU said that due to the lack of hostel accommodation, women outstation students are the worst hit. “There are 360 women students who have not been allotted rooms and have been sharing rooms with other girls. Some are living in rented accommodation outside the campus,” he said.

Ardra NG from Kerala, a JNU student who stays in a rented room in Munirka, said she had the option of sharing a room with two other girls in a single-sitter, but declined due to the space crunch. “There were already two girls living there and I would have had to sleep on the floor. I had no place to put my luggage either, so I opted out and rented a room,” she added.

Construction work on a new 544-sitter hostel ‘Koena’ has been on in the campus since 2007, but is yet to be completed. The protesting students demanded that the hostel should be completed as soon as possible and students allotted rooms.

JNU administration, meanwhile, has sent out a release saying it is “trying its best to get the hostel constructed as fast as possible but there are certain problems, including the provision of infrastructure facilities like water connection, sewerage, electricity and roads among others that need to be taken care of simultaneously”.