In a first of its kind, students of Bengaluru have found a voice for themselves. The Student’s Outpost is an initiative that intends to support and represent the entire student community in the city and become a platform for young Bengalureans to collaborate and grow. As Varkey Parakkal a student activist says, “There is no platform for students in Bengaluru that goes beyond the four walls of the college. There is a need to organise students to represent the student community.” A few posts online that expressed dissatisfaction over minimal student representation at important events in the city, brought these youngsters together.Over meetings during the weekends at the ever popular Cubbon Park they discuss ideas and have basically been trying to build a common ground for the students across the city. The group which has begun making their presence known as an independent organisation aside their college managements asserts the need for a strong student representation as Shalom Gauri, a literature student, “There is very little interaction between students from different colleges. Very few of us actually know people studying in other colleges. Colleges across the city host interesting events that we don’t hear about.”
Bengaluru is a city that has students coming from various parts of the country and not just the southern states. A group of students, exclusively for the students, would be widely capable of representing the large community as Hashim Qazi, a student of journalism says, “As a forum we look forward to gathering more students and to be true and ethical in our roles and our profession. Everybody here, in the group, is a speaker as much as they are a listener.”
Umaima Asad, a student of Jain College says, “A student union is not allowed by various colleges in the city. This is a platform that allows us to voice out our opinions and embraces our freedom to express our opinions. We want to help students who need a voice to speak for them. The Student’s Outpost, comes at a good time as Bengaluru currently does not have an official group for well rounded student representation that can be vocal and unanimous in nature. Umaima, a student of Jain College says, “A student union is not allowed by various colleges in the city. This is a platform that allows us to voice out our opinions and embraces our freedom to express our opinions. We want to help students who need a voice to speak for them.
An initiative of this scale that these pioneering students have imagined could actually create a large difference as they would be bridging a large gap that even social media can’t counter.
