“The Seasons Have Come and Gone”: Housekeeping Workers on the fifth day of the Protest

The morning of Monday, 1st September 2025, marked the fifth day of the protest undertaken by the housekeeping staff. At 2:30 PM, the student body received an email from Dr. Dheeraj Sanghi, the Dean of Student Affairs (DSA), claiming protestors had spread misinformation pertaining to their wages and wage increments. In the late afternoon, heavy rains caused the makeshift test housing workers and students present to collapse, causing workers to set up two smaller tents. Many were forced to return home.

Dr. Sanghi, in his email titled “Protest Supported by Student Government”, mentioned that the protesting workers are third-party employees and claimed that “the average increment over the last 5 years [of worker salaries at Ashoka University] has been in the range of 20-25%”. It further put forward the idea of a dialogue between the protesting workers and BluSpring, that could be mediated by university officials. BluSpring employees have sporadically been present at the protest and a representative came and spoke to the workers on 29th August 2025. 

Furthermore, the tents set up to house protesting workers and students faced damage by the continuous rains since the previous night. When the tents collapsed under the rain due to their weakened conditions in the afternoon, they caused “a worker and a student to get injured” a protesting worker told The Edict. Despite the heavy rains lasting for hours, there was no response received from the administration regarding the conditions the protestors were under. The workers were forced to relocate to the sides of Gate 1, separating the community. Lack of clean washrooms, emergency doctors or ambulance services are also causes of concern that the workers highlighted in conversation with The Edict.

“We have been seated since 6 a.m. of the 28th of August, and yet nobody from the administration has come to talk to us,” a worker frustratedly told The Edict. “Ashoka University is not a University, it is a company that sells a product called a degree. The workers work day and night– clean and help impress students and parents to promote this Company,” they added.

As of writing, the Student Government has not issued a formal response to the email, and protesting students and workers are spending the night under a second makeshift tent with plastic tarp.

(Edited by Sahana Radhakrishnan)