Parliament – Introduction and Work Done

The parliament is a students’ body dedicated to work for the betterment of the student community in IIIT-Hyderabad. A number of representatives, or Members of Parliament, are elected from each batch. The Parliament serves as a bridge between the students and faculty and besides deliberating on policies and acting on issues raised by the student community, it also takes new initiatives beneficial to the students.

Here are some of the policy changes/events/initiatives taken up by the parliament last year, as mentioned in the annual report:

1. Social Media Policy: Our institute’s online presence on various social media platforms is very minimal. Social media has emerged as a great platform for the Institute to engage/connect with students, parents, Alumni and community. We felt that our university lags behind other leading institutes in this regard and we should take up a corrective and an active policy now. Parliament wrote to PJN sir and he responded very positively for setting up a new social media team. Parliament, with support and guidance from Madhavi ma’am has set up a new team. The team works with the guidance of outreach department.
2. Recognition Certificates Committee: Student volunteers are the ones who help advance, improve, start and make flourish the college and college life. It is only fitting that they deserve some recognition for the work they do and the voluntary services they render to the college. While the college gives out awards some of the students from the graduating batch, many students require a formal letter from the college stating the positions they have held in college. Parliament Members discussed the idea of having a separate Recognition Certificate Committee whose role is to invite students to apply for certificates at the end of each year, verify the requests and hand them out to the students in a presentation ceremony. A formal policy has not yet been passed by the Parliament, but this idea was approved by SLC and thus such a Committee has been instituted. The complete details of this can be found on the portal that is created for the same.
3. Oversight on Yoga Projects: If and when a student falls slightly short of the number of days required to complete the Yoga credit, he/she is assigned a project by the Yoga instructor to make up for them. The Parliament received a lot of complaints from a number of students regarding the kind of projects given. The Parliament brought the issue to the faculty in-charge of sports and yoga and it was agreed, that from now on, all projects issued for Yoga credit completion will be overseen.
4. Cleanliness Drive (Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan): On the 2nd of October, the Prime Minister of India called for a Clean India Initiative and the Parliament also took up this call and organized a Swacchata Abhiyaan event. Students volunteered to collect the garbage and trash in the campus and we were joined by some faculty and Director sir as well. The Parliament had arranged for face masks, hand gloves and the entire area from OBH road up till the library canteen was cleaned by the volunteers. It is hoped that this becomes a more regular event from henceforth.

The Parliament, being a purely elected body, is completely democratic. The faculty also regularly discusses with parliament members about new policies – for example, they invited the parliament to take part in deciding the academic calendar for the year.

And a message to UG1 – If you want to take on a responsibility involving leadership, or think there should be a change in how things work – we encourage you to stand for the upcoming elections.

This article has been written by a current member of the Student Parliament and serves strictly as an introduction for the newcomers.