The 12th of June 2016 parents staged protest against fees hike in Hyderabad. The private schools collect exorbitant amounts, many children are forced to give up on education, the state government is reluctant to regulate. Maybe not reluctant but rather powerless according to Srikant whose children are studying in Amrita Vidyalaya :
"When we complained to senior officials they shamelessly said that the school managements are powerful and they cannot take any action against them"
Mata Amritanandamayi's institutions have a very simple way to get rid of those who can't afford fees hikes. They issue transfer certificate, 27 students were kicked out of school by such notice. Such behavior is not very compassionate to say the least. Aravinda Jata, chairperson of the Joint Action Committee for School Fee Regulation (JAC-SFR) is not optimistic about the issue :
"The school is not ready to take back the students until and unless the parents apologize. The school management is very adamant about it and is acting like a commercial institution"
The protest has been going for a whole year by now. It is easy to understand why the parents are so angry :
"Earlier the annual fee was in the range of Rs 10,000 for primary sections. Now it has been doubled. For higher classes it is in the range of `40,000 per annum. We raised our voice against the fee hike and stated in no uncertain terms that we will not pay the enhanced fee"The fees have doubled! What would any of us do in a situation like this? You child starts studying in a school. Then comes the management telling you that next year you will need to double you education bugdet whether you like it or not, whether you can or can't. Let's listen to the explanation given by a management representative :
"The fee we charge is the lowest among most CBSE schools in the city. Their actions are not justified because they did not pay the entire fee amount in the last year"This answer is extremely shameful because Mata Amritanandamayi collects donations in Western countries to fund her schools. Many volunteers work for free in her institutions. Charging lower fees is what we expect from her in return. Most Western devotees even believe that her schools are free charitable institutions built only to express her compassion in action.
Taking a closer look we can see that the protest over fees hikes has been going on for many years. In 2013 angry parents complained against Amrita Vidyalayam. Anyway parents protesting this year have been arrested by the police by the end of June.
More people have been arrested in July. Does "divine justice" make any sense when a "divine incarnation" resorts to human law enforcers to solve her issues?