Kasaragod: For three years, students of the Government College of Nursing, Kasaragod, at Ukkinadka have lived in rented rooms, spent tens of thousands of rupees on accommodation and food, travelled hundreds of kilometres for clinical training, and studied in a college that still lacks its own buildings, hostels, and adequate faculty or facilities.

Now, with a newly built 500-bed hostel on the same campus nearing completion for MBBS students, they fear they will once again be left out.

On Monday, all 179 students of the nursing college launched an indefinite day-and-night protest demanding accommodation in the new hostel built for the Government Medical College Hospital, Kasaragod. Students are boycotting classes and taking turns to keep the agitation going around the clock.

"When students of the other four new nursing colleges protested for hostels, we waited for three years because we were told we would be accommodated in the medical college hostel once it was ready. Now the hostel is almost complete, and officials are giving indications that it will not be available for nursing students," said a student leader.

The nursing college, started in 2023, and the medical college, started in 2025, are run from the same 67-acre campus at Ukkinadka on the border of Karnataka in Badiadka grama panchayat.

When the nursing college was started, the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) issued orders allowing it to share the medical college's facilities until its own infrastructure was developed.

The arrangement continues even today. Nursing students attend classes in the medical college's administrative block, while MBBS students use buses, desks and benches belonging to the nursing college.

"So if everything else is being shared, why can't the hostel be shared too? At least for the time being," said one female protester. "Particularly when Ukkinadka is such a remote place, and the hostel can accommodate 500 students."

After protests, students of the nursing college in Manjeri are allowed to stay in the hostel built for MBBS students. "So the government does not have to make an exception to us either," said another female student.

The medical college currently has only one MBBS batch of 50 students admitted in November 2025. The nursing college with an intake capacity of 60 students has 179 students (three batches).

According to students, officials said that they have funds only to furnish rooms for 50 MBBS students, and the government has not released funds to make arrangements for the 179 nursing students.  

"They suggested that we can take the private hostel now used by the MBBS students in Cherkala. That is not a solution. Cherkala is 20 km away and will take 45 minutes to reach the campus," said the student leader.

Another student said the Cherkala hostel has room for only 50 students, and will not solve the problem for the remaining 70% of the students.

Of the 179 students across three batches, 109 are women. With no hostel available, many stay in private lodgings, paying around ₹10,000 a month for a room shared by four students. A government hostel would cost only ₹150 to ₹300 a month in rent.

Students also cite safety concerns. They say the isolated campus is surrounded by thick vegetation and snake-infested areas. Three months ago, a first-year student was bitten by a snake. Female students staying off-campus have also complained about anti-social elements frequenting areas around private hostels.

The accommodation problem is compounded by the lack of a teaching hospital in the Kasaragod district. Every semester, they spend two months undergoing clinical postings, mostly at Kozhikode Medical College, nearly 200 kilometres away.

The General Hospital in Kasaragod is the designated teaching hospital for the medical college as well as the nursing college. "But it can handle only the requirements of first-semester nursing students. From the second semester onwards, we largely depend on Kozhikode," said a student.

That creates another financial burden. Students are forced to retain their rented accommodation in Ukkinadka while staying in Kozhikode for training, effectively paying for two places at the same time.

"Every semester, we end up spending around ₹5,000 extra because we cannot vacate our rooms for just two months," a student said.

With the construction of the medical college hospital block dragging on, the shortage of clinical training facilities is likely to become a far bigger problem when MBBS students enter their clinical years in the third year. Under National Medical Commission (NMC) norms, a teaching hospital is expected to be within 30 minutes of the medical college. However, the General Hospital in Kasaragod, now serving as the designated teaching hospital, is nearly an hour away from the Ukkinadka campus and lacks several facilities required for clinical training. While nursing students are currently being sent nearly 200 km away to Kozhikode Medical College for substantial portions of their clinical postings, such an arrangement would be impractical for MBBS students.

The nursing students also point to a severe faculty shortage. Under Indian Nursing Council (INC) norms, the student-teacher ratio should be 10:1. For 179 students, the college should have around 18 faculty members. Instead, it has only a principal and four teachers.

"The existing teachers are dedicated, but they are buried under a workload. The government has not even created adequate posts, let alone recruiting teachers," a third-year student said.

Students allege that despite repeated representations to the DME seeking hostel facilities, faculty appointments and a permanent campus, they have received nothing more than file references.

Even the three acres required for the nursing college's permanent campus have not yet been earmarked within the 67-acre medical college complex. They estimate it could take at least three more years before a dedicated hostel becomes a reality. Until then, they argue, the vacant rooms in the new medical college hostel offer the only practical solution.

On May 22, the students had staged a token protest and subsequently approached the district collector and Kasaragod MLA Kallatra Mahin. With no word of assurance, they launched the indefinite strike on Monday. "The first-year students are boycotting the classes. The second and third year students were supposed to go to Kozhikode Medical College for the semester training on June 1. But we have stayed back to protest," said the student leader. The protest has continued into the night, but nobody from the government has reached out, he said.