Sonu Sood Calls For Safe Student Housing After Tragic Delhi PG Collapse
Bollywood actor Sonu Sood has called for urgent action to improve student accommodation in Delhi after a five-storey paying guest (PG) building collapsed in the Satya Niketan area, killing seven people. Sood has been deeply touched by the tragedy and wants to see that hostels for students who live far from home are safe and affordable for students working away from home.
The actor spoke on Tuesday morning to X about the struggle lakhs of students face in the big cities every year to pursue education and to build careers. He asked whether there is enough safe accommodation for students, especially in cities where the demand for hostel facilities is much too high.
“Every year, lakhs of students leave their homes to chase a dream in another city. But are we giving them a safe place to live?” Sood wrote. There is a huge gap between the number of students in Delhi and hostel accommodation, he said.
Sood said about seven lakh students are in Delhi while hostel capacity is only approximately 30,000. He said that only about one in 31 students can access a hostel and most of the students are dependent on rented rooms, PG accommodation, and other private housing.
Every year, lakhs of students leave their homes to chase a dream in another city. But are we giving them a safe place to live?
— sonu sood (@SonuSood) September 8, 2026
In Delhi, around 7 lakh students are enrolled, while hostel capacity is barely 30,000 — just 1 in 31 gets a hostel.
Why not identify vacant government…
The actor suggested the government look for vacant land in the vicinity of universities and use it to create student hostels for them. And he suggested universities get additional building permission for more on-campus accommodation as well as safer housing for students.
Sood argued that such a policy could benefit students, their families, educational institutions, and governments at once. Safe accommodation would minimize risks for students and parents could have greater peace of mind about the living conditions of their children studying away from home.
“Students get safety. Parents get peace of mind. Universities and governments make money. And, most importantly, we protect lives,” Sood said, noting that policy changes in student housing could have a direct impact on public safety.
What Happened In Delhi?
The comments came after the collapse of a five-storey boys’ PG accommodation called ‘Hostel Daze’ in Delhi’s Satya Niketan area on Sunday afternoon near the South Campus of Delhi University. The building was reported to be inhabited by students and was a PG or hostel facility.
Late night update from Satya Niketan:
— Hindu Pilled🕉️ (@hindupilled) September 7, 2026
Basement digging paused as the building beside the collapse site is at risk of falling due to the walls damaged during the initial incident
Zero presence on the ground right now from NDRF, DDMA, politicians, student groups, or media pic.twitter.com/Vt1uCdrL2K
The building collapsed at approximately 1:30 pm on Sunday. Delhi Fire Services received the information at around 1:33 pm and sent rescue personnel to the site. Teams arrived at about 1:50 pm and began searching for people who could have been stuck under the rubble, the report said.
The building was located in a congested lane near a Shiv temple in the RK Puram and Moti Bagh area. The narrow surroundings and the heavy amount of debris added to the challenge for rescue workers at the site.
The accommodation had around 15 rooms in all and around two to three students stayed in each room, locals and officials said. The incident raised immediate concerns about the safety standards of privately run student accommodation in densely populated parts of the capital.
The death toll rose again Monday to seven, and rescue and search operations continued in a sea of rubble. The tragedy has forced the eyes of students to see the state of student housing and the need for stronger safety checks.
Sood’s intervention has shifted the conversation in the direction of student accommodation. Although the Delhi collapse is going to be investigated to determine what went wrong and why the structure failed, the actor’s plan is to prevent similar tragedies by increasing the availability of regulated and purpose-built student housing.
The demand also underscores a larger challenge for students in college cities with large universities. In these cities with little hostel space, many students have to find their own accommodation in private PGs or rented houses. Structural, fire, and other safety conditions in these buildings are still important in the areas where student housing is concentrated.
Hence, the Delhi tragedy has become far more than a single building collapse incident. It has raised questions about whether India’s major education hubs have the infrastructure to accommodate students safely and whether government-backed hostels and university accommodation are sufficient. Sood’s call for government-backed hostels and increased university accommodation is a new dimension to the debate and puts student safety and housing infrastructure on the agenda.
As the families of those who lost their lives in the collapse grieved, they have also been asking for more accountability, better building safety enforcement, and more affordable housing for students. For thousands of young people who leave their hometowns to study, a safe environment to live in is part and parcel of their education.
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