The origin of Indian students movement in its organised form can be traced to the formation ofAll India Students' Federation (AISF) on 12 August 1936 to further anti-imperialist politics.[4]Since the 1940s–1950s, several ideological debates fathomed within the AISF, regarding the analysis of the Indian society, the nature of the Indian state and its attitude towards students. A strong body of opinion emerged as to oppose the existing predominant view within the AISF, to cooperate and compromise with the nation's ruling classes towards a so-called progressive end. They called for militancy in student movements, aimed towards a progressive reorientation of the existing education system. As political differences between dissenting factions within the AISF developed, added with their negligence on student issues, it split into several local organizations which started working independently. In 1970, delegates from such organizations held a conference inThiruvananthapuram to form a new national students' organisation. The All India Conference was held from 27 to 30 December, and resulted in formation of Students' Federation of India.[5][6]
The Students' Federation of India in 2024–25 has 24 functioning state committees. They are a major student force in Kerala and West Bengal. Currently, they also hold student unions in various universities across India, including Hyderabad Central University[21] andPondicherry University.[22]
SFI's 18th All India Conference was held from 27 June to 30 June 2025 at Kozhikode, Kerala. The Conference was Organized at Palestine Solidarity Nagar and Sitaram Yechury - Nepaldeb Bhattacharya Manch.[20]
During theCOVID-19 lockdown in India,[35] SFI distributed sanitary napkins to female students in West Bengal[36] and demanded their inclusion in essential commodities in Himachal Pradesh. SFI set up COVID-19 helpline numbers in various states to help stranded students.[37] 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.[37] Online art festivals, lecture series and online classes were also organised by various SFI committee's.[38][39][40] SFI also produced face masks and hand sanitisers.[40]
SFI had won court cases for regulating private coaching centres in India.[41] They also had movements against the delay in fellowships and scholarships for university students.[42]
SFI approached Supreme Court seeking directions to provide universal free vaccination to all citizens of India and to waive off the goods and service tax levied on the import of the oxygen concentrators used for personal use during the COVID-19 pandemic.[46][47]
From 27 to 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.[50]
Protesting against the imposition of 12% tax on sanitary napkins, the women sub-committee of SFI protested nationwide in July 2017.[51] The campaign was named "Bleed Without Fear, Bleed Without Tax". Petitions were submitted to the Union Finance MinisterArun Jaitley for revoking the government decision.[52][53] Thousands of girl students mailed sanitary napkins with protest slogans to Arun Jaitley's office.[52][54][55] This campaign was similar to that of thePink Chaddi Campaign in 2009.[54] 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.[54]
In 2019, SFI members were elected as the first female chairpersons inSacred Heart College, Thevara, Kochi,[62] and theCollege of Engineering, Trivandrum (CET).[63][64] Earlier, the SFI had organised protests of the female hostelites of CET in February 2019 for extending the curfew timings for girls' hostels. This movement forced the government to accept the demands and Dr Usha Titus, the Higher Education Secretary of the Kerala Government issued orders to enforce them.[64]
The idea of GSCASH (Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment) was first experimented in Jawaharlal Nehru University by SFI's students union headed byVijoo Krishnan in 1998–99.[65][66] 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 approachedMadras High Court for redressal.[67] The movement later ended successfully with the High Court ordering university to constitute institutional mechanisms for grievances.[67] In Assam, the Directorate of Higher Education (DHE) in 2018 ordered all colleges to set up GSCASH after the SFI's intervention.[68]
SFI has actively supported LGBTQIA+ rights. SFI was the first student organization in India to nominate an openly gay person for a Student Union election as they nominated Gourab Ghosh forJawaharlal Nehru University Student Union elections held in 2013 as its candidate for the General Secretary position.[69][70][71] SFI has campaigned for LGBTQIA+ rights in college campuses, and has held conventions.[72][73] In 2016, SFI decided to include the ‘others’ gender option in its membership forms.[74] SFI has supported the scrapping ofsection 377 and opposes theTransgender Persons Act, 2019 commenting that the Act "infringes on the rights and dignity of transpersons". Prominent LGBTQIA+ persons in SFI include Apratim Roy (first trans SFI West Bengal State committee member),[75] Nandhana (first Transgender member of Thrissur District committee, Kerala), Adam Harry (first trans man to become a pilot in India), Muhammed Zuhrabi (queer activist, ex-General Secretary,Pondicherry University Students' Council).
There have been cases of SFI cadres booked for anti-social activities in Thiruvananthapuram city.[76][77][78][79] In 2017, T Vijayalakshmi, the Director-in-Charge of Students Services of Kerala University, went on indefinite leave, citing death threats received from SFI affiliated students.[80] In 2019, retired judge PK Shamsudin conducted an informal personal probe in college campus politics; Shamsudin claimed anti-democratic activities of SFI in University College, Thiruvananthapuram and claimed presence of "torture rooms" run by SFI.[81][82] That same year, SFI College Unit members were arrested for stabbing a student at University College.[83][84][85] In 2022, videos of the office of an MP from Wayanad Rahul Gandhi being vandalised by SFI members were circulated on social media. The incident was condemned by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.[86][87] In 2022, SFI activists were booked for assault on woman at Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram.[88][89] In 2023, SFI activists barged into theAsianet News media office in Ernakulam. The activists pushed aside the security guard and displayed banners against the news outlet.[90][91][92]
^Martelli, Jean-Thomas (2019). "The Spillovers of Competition: Value-based Activism and Political Cross-fertilization in an Indian Campus".Student Politics in South Asia.22.doi:10.4000/samaj.6501.
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