Maharashtra govt ends 30 year age bar for Tribal students in hostels

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Tuesday decided to do away with the age limit for admission to tribal students' hostels, a development that came a day after leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on the issue.

On Tuesday, tribal development minister Ashok Uike held a meeting with a delegation of agitating tribal students, tribal MPs and MLAs from all parties, following which he announced that the state government's decision to impose an age limit of 30 years would be withdrawn.

"There will be no age limit for students seeking admission to Adivasi hostels in Maharashtra," Uike said after the meeting. Tribal students have been agitating and observing a hunger strike for the past 12 days in Pune over several issues, with the age limit being a key concern. The tribal development ministry had on August 14 issued a government resolution, stating that students above the age of 30 years would not be eligible for admission to tribal hostels.


The issue gained prominence when a tribal student, during Gandhi's 'Chhatron ki Goonj' programme in Pune on Saturday, complained to him about the age limit. Following this, Gandhi wrote a letter to the CM highlighting the issues raised by the students.

'hunger strike to continue'

While the state government has withdrawn the age limit order, the students are still resolved to continue their hunger strike as their other demands have yet to be accepted. One of their key demands is that the allowances provided to tribal students under various heads by the government should be increased annually and linked to inflation. The students have also demanded an insurance cover of ₹10 crore for every tribal student and ₹1 crore compensation for the families of three girl students who were studying in an ashram school and died after snake bites.