JNU’s Barak Hostel: Built for northeast students but houses only 12% from the region
Twelve years after the Bezbaruah Committee recommended dedicated housing for Northeast students, JNU’s Barak Hostel has failed to honour its 75:25 reservation, students say, even as the two-year-old building shows signs of disrepair
In 2014, a brutal racial assault on an Arunachal Pradesh student in Delhi led to widespread protests and discussions about the challenges faced by northeastern students studying across India. In response, a committee was formed to address their concerns and propose solutions. One of the recommendations was to create a dedicated hostel for students from the northeast, leading to the planning of Barak Hostel at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
After more than a decade of delays, the hostel was finally inaugurated in 2025. However, according to the student president Hrishikesh Talukdar, only 12% of its occupants are from the northeast, far below the originally planned 75% reservation.
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