The Students' Federation of India is an Indian left-wingstudent organisation affiliated to the Communist Party of India. Currently, V. P. Sanu and Mayukh Biswas are elected as the All India President and general secretary respectively.
History
SFI was formed in an all India conference was held at Thiruvananthapuram from 27–30 December 1970 to form Students' Federation of India. Following is a list of former office bearers at the national level.
The SFI's flag has a red five-pointed, socialist-style star in the top left corners, on a white background and the words "Independence", "Democracy" and "Socialism" are written, in English or in a local language, one beneath the other, at the bottom right of the flag, also in red. The ratio of length and breadth of the flag is 3:2.
Membership
The Students' Federation of India in 2020-21 has 24 functioning state committee's. Gujarat, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh and a unit in Central University of Jammu are newly formed committees. SFI is leading several student unions of universities in Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Odisha, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,Bihar and Kerala.
Activities
SFI has protested against the National Education Policy, 2019, hike in fees, and under-representation of reserved students in IITs.
SFI members took part and organised multiple Citizenship Amendment Act protests in 2019. The SFI marched to the Parliament in one such protest. Further, the SFI even approached the Supreme Court against the act.
During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India, SFI distributed sanitary napkins to female students in West Bengal and demanded their inclusion in essential commodities in Himachal Pradesh. SFI set up COVID-19 helpline numbers in various states to help stranded students. To combat misinformation and reach out to the migrant labourers in various places, SFI launched a campaign named "My dear friend" where verified information from government sources are translated into various Indian languages and circulated through social media. Online art festivals, lecture series and online classes were also organised by various SFI committee's. SFI also produced face masks and hand sanitisers.
SFI had won court cases for regulating private coaching centres in India. SFI and DYFI activists jointly posted 1.5 lakh letters to the Prime Minister's office for lodged FIR against 49 artists who condemned the lynching of people and the activities of cow vigilantes.
Women in SFI
From 27–29 January 2017, the 5th All India Girls Convention was held at Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh and it elected a 23 member team of girls’ sub-committee.
Bleed Without Fear, Bleed Without Tax
Protesting against the imposition of 12% tax on sanitary napkins, the women sub-committee of SFI protested nationwide in July 2017. The campaign was named "Bleed Without Fear, Bleed Without Tax". Petitions were submitted to the Union Finance MinisterArun Jaitley for revoking the government decision. Thousands of girl students mailed sanitary napkins with protest slogans to Arun Jaitley's office. This campaign was similar to that of the Pink Chaddi Campaign in 2009. The campaign also demanded the installation of adequate sanitary napkin vending machines in schools and colleges and providing six packets of sanitary napkins for one rupee to the women below poverty line.
The idea of GSCASH was first experimented in Jawaharlal Nehru University by SFI's students union headed by Vijoo Krishnan in 1998–99. In September 2013, after the harassment of two women students of Pondicherry University, the SFI initiated a movement for GSCASH in the university and the activists approached Madras High Court for redressal. The movement later ended successfully with the High Court ordering university to constitute institutional mechanisms for grievances. In Assam, the Directorate of Higher Education in 2018 ordered all colleges to set up GSCASH after the SFI's intervention.
Reception
In 2019, an informal probe by retired Justice PK Shamsudin, appointed to look into the discrepancies in college campus politics noted the anti-democratic activities of SFI in Kerala. However, the SFI denied these claims.
