With students’ support, housekeeping staffers at Ashoka University go on strike

The housekeeping staff of Ashoka University on Thursday went on strike to press their demands, including fair compensation, job security and protection of their rights. The members of the Ashoka University Student Government (AUSG), which is a governing body run by the students to represent their collective demands, also came out in support of the strike of the housekeeping staff and joined the protest at gate number 1 of the university at Rajiv Gandhi Education City in Rai of Sonepat.

The students and housekeeping staff gathered at the gate 1 and began raising slogans against the university administration and demanded that their demands be filled.

The strike has been called in response to longstanding concerns regarding wages, arbitrary dismissals and unjust working conditions on the campus. The protesting housekeeping staff said their key demands were – an increase in monthly wages from the current INR 12,000–13,000 to INR 18,000, a guaranteed 10 per cent annual increment in salaries to ensure fair growth and security, immediate reinstatement of the three housekeeping workers who were arbitrarily dismissed towards the end of the last Spring semester, assurance that no worker participating in the strike would face punitive action, a formal written agreement, jointly signed by representatives of Bluspring and Ashoka University, ensuring implementation of the demands and safeguarding workers’ jobs.

The protesting staff members emphasised that the strike were not just a call to meet these immediate demands, but also an urgent appeal to address larger issues of surveillance, exploitation and injustice faced by them on-campus. The students’ body said it stood firmly in solidarity with them and would continue to support their demands.