The collapse of a five-storey building in Delhi’s Satya Niketan, which housed students, has raised fresh questions about the safety of accommodation used by young people pursuing education away from home. Seven people were killed and six injured, while authorities are investigating the condition of the building, renovation work and alleged lapses.
For thousands of students who leave their hometowns for college, coaching or competitive examinations, finding a room or paying-guest accommodation is part of the journey.
But how much do they know about the building they are living in?
Is there a proper structural safety certificate?
Are emergency exits available?
Who checks whether electrical and construction work is being carried out safely?
And when something goes wrong, who is responsible?
These questions have become harder to ignore after the Satya Niketan tragedy. Reports today have pointed to concerns including the building’s age, renovation work and safety arrangements.
For a student and his or her family, a paying guest accommodation is not simply a room.
It is where a young person sleeps, studies and spends most of the year while trying to build a career.
Parents often make these choices from hundreds of kilometres away. They may check the rent, location and facilities, but they cannot always know whether a building is structurally safe.
That is the part of the student-life story that rarely gets attention.
When education takes students away from home
Delhi, Kota, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and many other education hubs have large populations of students living outside their homes.
They depend on hostels, paying-guest accommodation and rented buildings.
The pressure is often on affordability and proximity to college or coaching centres. Safety can become something people assume is already being taken care of.
The Satya Niketan collapse shows why that assumption cannot be taken for granted.
The Delhi government has said it plans to introduce a policy requiring structural audits and safety certification for buildings used by students and other members of the public.
That may be an important step.
But for students and parents, the bigger question will be whether such checks are actually carried out before a tragedy occurs.
A young person leaves home to study.
The least they should expect is a safe place to come back to.
