Crumbling foundations: The plight of Karnataka's state-run hostels

Overcrowded dorms, unhygienic conditions, and a lack of basic resources in Karnataka's hostels have put the children from marginalised communities at risk.

Bengaluru/Mandya/Kolar/Chikkaballapur: On a sunny March evening, it is only natural to catch 10th graders huddling in a circle, nervously skimming their textbooks. After all, it is exam time. However, for around a dozen teens at the Karnataka Residential Educational Institutions Society (KREIS) residential school (SC) at Chikkarasinakere in Maddur taluk, Mandya district, their worries had nothing to do with academics. 

“What facilities do we have in this school? We get neither beds nor cots. It is extremely hot in summer, but there are hardly any fans,” says Suresh Kumar*, one of the students. 

Suresh* is soon joined by Suneeth*, who says that it is a struggle to get the opportunity to bathe once a day. “There are hardly three to four bathrooms for around 120 boys,” he says. 

“We have students from Classes 6 to 10 studying here. Since Class 10 students have extra classes in the morning, we do not get hot water. A lot of us are bathing once every three days,” he adds. The co-ed school accommodates 250 students in total.

“Our problems are worsened by the fact that our school is run in a rented space,” Karthik chips in.

The Chikkarasinakere school is a microcosm of the state of affairs across most KREIS schools and SC and ST pre-matric and post-matric hostels across Karnataka. While SC schools are run by the Social Welfare Department, the ST schools are under the jurisdiction of the Scheduled Tribes Welfare Department. 

Miles away in Chikkaballapur, slightly older boys in their late teens are also cursing their fate for having joined the post-matric boys’ hostel.

From drinking water to food, and from beds and cots to mosquito repellants, access to basic facilities has been limited. “The food quality is so bad that most of us have rashes on our bodies after eating here. A few days ago, the idlis prepared were so hard and rubbery that they bounced when we dropped them on the plate. We have video recordings of this. Despite our complaints, the situation remains the same here,” says Eshwar, a diploma student from Malur taluk in Kolar district. 

“In a single room where there are seven to eight cots, 17 to 18 students are staying. Those without cots either sleep on the floor or lie on the upper parts of the double-decker cots,” Kumaresh, an ITI student, says. 

In the girls’ pre-matric hostel in Pandavapura taluk, Mandya district, with no cot arrangements, children are compelled to sleep on the floor. As the hostel operates in a space rented out by a local temple in its premises, students have been denied meat for over eight years — a decision that was only revoked recently. 

Despite these obstacles, the school has performed admirably in consecutive SSLC examinations. One can only wonder at the potential results with better facilities. 

The Legislative Committee for the Welfare of SC/STs, helmed by Malavalli MLA P M Narendraswamy, in its first and interim report placed in the Legislature on December 6, 2023, has rapped officials for a lack of quality food and a lack of female wardens in girls’ schools and co-ed residential schools. The committee has thus far submitted four reports, and a fifth is expected during the Monsoon Session.

Causes

While a section of activists and scholars attribute these problems to insufficient government grants, some others point towards systemic flaws, bureaucratic incompetence and rampant corruption as some contributory causes. 

The Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan Act (SCSP/TSP Act), passed in 2013 during Siddaramaiah’s first chief ministerial term, earmarks a portion of the state’s budgetary plan outlay proportionate to the population of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes.

According to the 2011 Census, the population of people belonging to SC/ST communities is 24.1% in Karnataka (17.15% SCs and 6.95% STs). As per the Act, funds from the Corpus are distributed across the 34 departments. 

Fund utilisation

The expenditure for hostels and KREIS schools will be borne by the Social Welfare Department and the Scheduled Tribes Welfare Department. Currently, the government is spending Rs 1,750 per month on one student. 

Along with an increasing budgetary outlay each year, the corresponding share of funds for the SCSP/TSP corpus has also risen. While Rs 39,121 crore was reserved for the SCSP/TSP funds in the 2024-25 Budget, the funds rose to Rs 42,018 crore in the 2025-26 Budget.

However, in the 2025-26 Budget, the government allocated Rs 13,433.84 crore towards the guarantees, which is allowed as per Section 7C of the SCSP/TSP Act, which allows expenditure towards general social sector schemes like education and health. 

Compared to the previous 2024-25 Budget, the government plans to spend Rs 3,746 crore more on non-guarantee schemes this time. However, different factions of the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (DSS) are against the provision that allows expenditure on the general social sector. They have objected to the government spending from the SCSP/TSP corpus for the guarantees. 

They have dubbed the government’s allocation of Rs 5,104 crore for the Social Welfare Department and Rs 1,923 crore for the Scheduled Tribes Welfare Department as insufficient.

The department has allocated Rs 1,743 crores in the current Budget to provide own buildings for 61 KREIS schools, 34 hostels, and to provide educational infrastructure in KREIS schools.

“We have been emphasising that 50% of the money under the SCSP/TSP corpus should be reserved towards educating children from SC/ST communities. Another 30% of the funds should be earmarked towards supporting self-employment projects. This is essential to qualitatively improve the condition of the communities,” says Mavalli Shankar, State Chief Convenor, DSS (Ambedkar Vada).

Seconding Shankar’s point of view, Guruprasad Keragodu, another Dalit leader and the state convenor of DSS, points out that expenditures on education and asset creation were integral to the social mobility of  Dalit communities.

He also notes that it is essential that every school has a computer lab and an operator, as mastery of these technologies is crucial to employment in the current job market. 

Systemic issues

The Narendraswamy-led committee points out that basic facilities are lacking and has held some officials responsible for the lapses. A top source in the department explained that it was not viable to go after individuals in the absence of official complaints but explained that the ‘transparency’ in the department had improved considerably, of late. 

The committee, which toured 14 districts in north and central Karnataka, pointed out that overcrowding, cheap quality of food, lack of water facilities, the absence of libraries and academic environment and, in some cases, a lack of permanent buildings, were pressing concerns. 

DH’s ground reports from four districts in south Karnataka (Bengaluru Urban, Kolar, Chikkaballapur and Mandya) have shown that the committee’s analysis, by and large, holds good for south Karnataka too.

Delving into the issue of substandard food, the committee felt several hostel wardens were in cahoots with local dealers, siphoning off profits and providing poor quality food for the children.

During DH’s visit to the aforementioned hostel in Chikkaballapur, students accused the warden of using old vegetables and providing substandard food. However, the warden refused to show the vegetables in response to a request to verify quality.

Similarly, wardens have failed to provide toilet kits on time to students in several places. When DH visited Doddahasala PU boys’ hostel in Kolar district, students pointed out that kits were not provided on time. They accused the staff of adulteration, noting that butter milk, tea and coffee were being diluted by adding water.

Permanent facilities

Though KREIS schools are better maintained than pre-matric and post-matric hostels run by the two departments, the lack of permanent buildings has been a recurring issue.

According to the committee’s report, of the 821 KREIS schools in Karnataka, buildings are being constructed for 182 schools, while 100 are working in rented spaces.

Owing to the lack of a permanent building, an acute crisis was felt in KREIS schools at Melukamanahalli in Gundlupet taluk of Chamarajanagar district. Muniraju, Chamarajanagar Deputy Director, pointed out that two KREIS schools (one SC and another ST) are being run in the same building in Melukamanahalli.

While the DD conceded that there had been logistical issues since both schools had around 250 students each, he said the school run by the Social Welfare Department (SC) would be relocated by June 1.

Lekha Adavi, national vice-president of the All India Students Association (AISA), pointed out that the lack of permanent buildings has been a huge problem in north Karnataka — a region that has been lagging behind on health, social and economic indicators.

“In Gangavathi in Koppal district, an SC post-matric boys’ hostel is being run in a house-like space. As many as 80 boys live there, but there are only three bathrooms. These boys sleep on the terrace, and there is no hot water during the winter. The situation is very undignified,” she adds.

In the 2025-26 Budget, it was declared that buildings would be constructed for 61 KREIS schools (40 SC, 7 ST and 14 Backward classes) at a cost of Rs 1,292 crore.

The Budget also promises to build facilities for the Social Welfare Department, as currently, 34 hostels function out of rental spaces, at a cost of Rs 238 crore.

Hostels are also more likely to be overcrowded in big cities than in district and taluk places, where several seats are vacant. This calls for better redistribution of students to ensure that resources are not wasted.

These problems have a wide range of impacts on students. While the quality of food and water bears an impact on students’ health, overcrowding and a lack of libraries affect the academic performance of students.

“Students cannot read properly due to overcrowding. They need space and a calm atmosphere to read. For that reason, children wake up at midnight, read for a few hours before going to college,” Lekha
adds.

For students dissenting with the wardens, the road has not been smooth either.“The department officials in their anxiety to maintain discipline, disempower the students and put them in fear of expulsion from the faculty. For instance, when members of student groups raise issues of proper sanitation and protection, they are seen as ‘troublemakers’ and may get thrown out of the hostels,” says Vasudeva Sharma, executive director of Child Rights Trust.

Several students, especially girls, have discontinued their studies. 

The Narendraswamy-led committee emphasises that residential schools must employ women wardens. Sharma highlights the importance of this provision, stating that it’s absolutely necessary to ensure the safety of women students.

He pointed out that district administrations have visiting committees. Each student should be provided with checklists on their entitlements.

Shankar agrees, highlighting that the monitoring committees must also have social workers to ensure that diverse viewpoints are considered.

Guruprasad argues that the government should provide scholarships and hostel facilities to those students who have secured management quota seats in private colleges as well, since most students are moving towards private colleges for professional courses.

Pointing out that Rs 3,36,975 crore has been announced in the SCSP/TSP corpus right from the 2013-14 Budget to the current one, the DSS organisations have urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to hold a special session once in two-and-a-half years to ensure targeted discussions on the expenditure of funds under the SCSP/TSP corpus.

Contending that a majority of these students hail from families where they are first-generation or second-generation learners, Sharma feels the onus is on the government to create greater awareness of basic rights amongst both parents and
students. 

While stronger mechanisms to prevent institutionalised corruption are essential to correct the system, various experts have also emphasised the need for wardens and officials to spend more time with these children. The Narendraswamy-led committee has reiterated the need for DCs, CEOs and other top district-level officials to spend more time with the children at hostels, explaining that this is necessary to ensure that they continue to feel at home.

(*Names changed on request)

A government boys’ hostel in Bengaluru; overcrowded rooms at a post-metric hostel in Chikkaballapur district.

A waterlogged sink at a hostel in Kolar district.