New Delhi: More than 200 PG accommodations are packed into Satya Niketan, the neighbourhood flanking Delhi University’s South Campus, where students pay as much as Rs 15,000 for matchbox-sized rooms.
In the unit where I lived for a year and three months, a room costing Rs 20,000, Rs 10,000 per bed, could barely fit two cots and an almirah. You had nearly 10 such ‘rooms’ on a single floor sharing two or three poorly maintained washrooms. Because of the location, “Landlords charge a bomb simply.
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“The PG eco-system operates freely because they know students lack viable alternatives,” says Saavi, a student. “The structures here are literally sectioned off with wooden partitions inside,” said Ojashvita Kaushik, an alumnus of Maitreyi College who lived in Satya Niketan before moving to Pune for her Masters. “Almost everyone who studies in South Campus ends up living here at some point, it’s the default hub for all of us,” said Saavi. “North Campus has Kamla Nagar as a proper hub, but at South Campus, we only have Satya Niketan, so we just learned to make do with what we had,” Riya, a student of Sri Venkateswara college said.
For thousands of students who come to Delhi from across the country, however, the alternatives are few and far between. With limited or no hostel facilities at several South Campus colleges, Satya Niketan’s biggest draw is its location — close to colleges and the Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus metro station. But the bigger issue is basic health and safety. The tiffin services are notoriously unhygienic and the water quality is terrible. Students fall ill in large numbers, with jaundice and stomach infections being extremely common across these PGs. ” Satya Niketan sits close to colleges such as Sri Venkateswara, ARSD, Maitreyi and Jesus and Mary College. These colleges attract students from across the country but most offer minimal or no hostel facilities. That keeps demand for PG accommodation in the neighbourhood high. Former residents say landlords often modify buildings to squeeze in more rooms. “Landlords knock down a central wall in a long room to carve out three or four tiny cubicles. It was cramped beyond a point and maybe that shared struggle created a real sense of community. That’s how a mix of difficult living conditions and student camaraderie defines Satya Niketan. Its narrow lanes remain busy from morning till late at night, packed with PGs, cafes, street-food stalls and students looking for an inexpensive meal or simply a place to spend time after classes. For many students, there is no comparable neighbourhood around South Campus. “Whenever classes were over or someone wanted to celebrate a small win with a quick meal, Satya Niketan was our only real option. But the living conditions are dreadful, it’s completely unhygienic, choked with tangled overhead wires, and the waterlogged lanes make it feel like a total deathtrap,” she added. Yet, for all its problems, Satya Niketan remains difficult for students to avoid. Its location, metro connectivity, food joints and proximity to colleges make it both a social hub and a housing lifeline for South Campus — even as students pay steep rents for cramped spaces and put up with conditions they say are often unhygienic and unsafe. Download the TOI App.