Students' Federation of India

The Students' Federation of India is an Indian left-wing student organisation affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist).[1] Currently, V. P. Sanu and Mayukh Biswas are elected as the All India President and general secretary respectively.[2][3]

Students' Federation of India
AbbreviationSFI
MottoStudy and Struggle
Formation1970
TypeStudent Organisation
Legal statusActive
HeadquartersIndia
Membership
4,078,473
President
V. P. Sanu
General Secretary
Mayukh Biswas
Vice-Presidents
V.A Vineesh, Pratikur Rahman, Y. Ramu, Kota Ramesh, Balaji Kaletwad.
Joint Secretaries
Sachin Dev, Srijan Bhattacharyya, Dipsita Dhar, Dinit Denta, Sandipan Deb.
Websitesficec.org

History

The origin of Indian students movement in its organised form can be traced to the formation of All India Students’ Federation (AISF) on 12 August 1936 to further anti-imperialist politics. After India gained Independence, the question of tailing the policies and politics of Congress party found vehement opposition within AISF and it paved thoughts for a new students organisation. Therefore, an all India conference was held at Thiruvananthapuram from 27–30 December 1970 to form Students' Federation of India.[4][5]

Following is a list of former office bearers at the national level.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]

Former National Office Bearers
No.YearPlace of ConferencePresidentgeneral secretary
11970TrivandrumC BhaskaranBiman Bose
21973Delhi (CEC Meeting)Prakash KaratBiman Bose
31974KolkataPrakash KaratBiman Bose
41976Kolkata (CEC Meeting)Prakash KaratSubhas Chakraborty
51978PatnaM. A. BabyNepaldeb Bhattacharya
61981BombayM.A. BabyNepaldeb Bhattacharya
71984DumdumSitaram YechuryNepaldeb Bhattacharya
81986VijayawadaA. VijayaraghavanNilotpal Basu
91989KolkataA. VijayaraghavanNilotpal Basu
101993TrivandrumY B RaoSujan Chakraborty
111997MidnaporeK. N. BalagopalBratin Sengupta
122000ChennaiP Krishna PrasadSamik Lahiri
132003KozhikodeK. K. RageshKallol Roy
142005HyderabadR Arun KumarK. K. Ragesh
152008Salt LakeP. K. BijuRitabrata Banerjee
162012MaduraiV. SivadasanRitabrata Banerjee
172016SikarV. P. SanuVikram Singh
182018ShimlaV. P. SanuMayukh Biswas

Flag

The SFI's flag has a red five-pointed, socialist-style star in the top left corners, on a white background and the words "Independence", "Democracy" and "Socialism" are written, in English or in a local language, one beneath the other, at the bottom right of the flag, also in red. The ratio of length and breadth of the flag is 3:2.[20]

Membership

The Students' Federation of India in 2020-21 has 24 functioning state committee's. Gujarat, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh and a unit in Central University of Jammu[21] are newly formed committees. SFI is leading several student unions of universities in Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Odisha, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,Bihar and Kerala.[22][23][24]

Activities
  • SFI has protested against the National Education Policy, 2019,[25] hike in fees,[26][27][28] and under-representation of reserved students in IITs.[29]
  • SFI members took part and organised multiple Citizenship Amendment Act protests in 2019.[30][31][32] The SFI marched to the Parliament in one such protest.[33] Further, the SFI even approached the Supreme Court against the act.[34][35][36]
  • During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India,[37] SFI distributed sanitary napkins to female students in West Bengal[38] and demanded their inclusion in essential commodities in Himachal Pradesh. SFI set up COVID-19 helpline numbers in various states to help stranded students.[39] To combat misinformation and reach out to the migrant labourers in various places, SFI launched a campaign named "My dear friend" where verified information from government sources are translated into various Indian languages and circulated through social media.[39] Online art festivals, lecture series and online classes were also organised by various SFI committee's.[40][41][42] SFI also produced face masks and hand sanitisers.[43]
  • SFI had won court cases for regulating private coaching centres in India.[44] SFI and DYFI activists jointly posted 1.5 lakh letters to the Prime Minister's office for lodged FIR against 49 artists who condemned the lynching of people and the activities of cow vigilantes.[45]

Women in SFI

From 27–29 January 2017, the 5th All India Girls Convention was held at Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh and it elected a 23 member team of girls’ sub-committee.[46]

Bleed Without Fear, Bleed Without Tax

Protesting against the imposition of 12% tax on sanitary napkins, the women sub-committee of SFI protested nationwide in July 2017.[47] The campaign was named "Bleed Without Fear, Bleed Without Tax". Petitions were submitted to the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for revoking the government decision.[48][49] Thousands of girl students mailed sanitary napkins with protest slogans to Arun Jaitley's office.[50][48][51] This campaign was similar to that of the Pink Chaddi Campaign in 2009.[50] The campaign also demanded the installation of adequate sanitary napkin vending machines in schools and colleges and providing six packets of sanitary napkins for one rupee to the women below poverty line.[50]

All-women panels

Female candidates of the SFI won all seats in a mixed college by fielding an all-women panel for students union elections[52] in Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady in 2017.[52][53][54] An SFI member became the first Dalit woman to be elected as the chairperson in Maharaja's College, Ernakulam in 2017.[55][56]

In 2018, all-women SFI panels won in CMS College Kottayam[57] and contested in Government Victoria College, Palakkad.[58]

In 2019, SFI members were elected as the first female chairpersons in Sacred Heart College, Thevara, Kochi,[59] and the College of Engineering, Trivandrum (CET).[60][61] Earlier, the SFI had organised protests of the female hostelites of CET in February 2019 for extending the curfew timings for girls' hostels. This movement forced the government to accept the demands and Dr Usha Titus, the Higher Education Secretary of Kerala Government issued orders to enforce them.[61]

GSCASH

The idea of GSCASH (Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment) was first experimented in Jawaharlal Nehru University by SFI's students union headed by Vijoo Krishnan in 1998–99.[62][63] In September 2013, after the harassment of two women students of Pondicherry University, the SFI initiated a movement for GSCASH in the university and the activists approached Madras High Court for redressal.[64] The movement later ended successfully with the High Court ordering university to constitute institutional mechanisms for grievances.[64] In Assam, the Directorate of Higher Education (DHE) in 2018 ordered all colleges to set up GSCASH after the SFI's intervention.[65]

Reception

In 2019, an informal probe by retired Justice PK Shamsudin, appointed to look into the discrepancies in college campus politics noted the anti-democratic activities of SFI in Kerala.[66][67] However, the SFI denied these claims.[68]

References
  1. Banerjie, Monideepa (16 January 2015). "Violence Plagues College Union Elections in West Bengal". NDTV.com. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  2. Benu, Parvathi (13 July 2019). "'I apologise to people of Kerala': Why SFI's V P Sanu disbanded University College Unit after comrade stabs comrade". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  3. Das, Gaurav (13 March 2020). "Assam Police Doesn't Want Aishe Ghosh to Address Anti-CAA Meet, Alleges SFI". The Wire. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  4. "History_of_SFI" (PDF).
  5. "Programme of Students' Federation of India". 11 January 2015. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  6. "Know Sitaram Yechury, the Man who Heads Indian Communism". The Quint. 19 April 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  7. Apr 3, Akshaya Mukul / TNN /; 2006. "CPM witnesses 'generational change' | India News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 10 May 2020.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. "Prakash Karat: A leader from his student days - Indian Express". The Indian Express. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  9. "SIT to interrogate former SFI President K K Ragesh". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  10. November 1, Romita Datta; November 11, 2019 ISSUE DATE; November 1, 2019UPDATED; Ist, 2019 14:44. "Calling the Youth". India Today. Retrieved 10 May 2020.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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  12. "SFI National President V Sivadasan: Latest News & Videos, Photos about SFI National President V Sivadasan | The Economic Times". The Economic Times. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
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  40. "Coronavirus: Online art festival, another lockdown innovation in Kerala". Deccan Herald. 10 April 2020. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
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