Poor lighting, misogynist guards, administrative apathy have left campus unsafe for women

“We can’t step out of the hostel for even 10 minutes without being harassed. Half-a-dozen boys follow us, passing lewd comments,” says Kumari Akanksha, a second year Arts student at Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

“What makes it worse is that if we complain to the warden or the proctor, they resort to moral policing. They scold us for going out in the evening or question us about our dress,” added the student, who lives in the Mahila Maha Vidyalaya hostel inside the BHU campus. Almost every woman student The Hindu spoke to echoed Ms. Akanksha’s complaint about the unsafe nature of the BHU campus.

The fresh controversy in the varsity was triggered by the molestation of a fine arts student on Thursday evening. But the students’ grouse was not restricted to this particular case. They feel the campus is generally unsafe, given its poor lighting, lack of CCTV cameras, and uncooperative, misogynist security guards.

“There have been attempts to snatch my phone. I dread walking outside in the evening.”

The poor lighting makes it easy for hooligans to molest or harass women and escape without being identified, said Aishwarya Singh, a Sociology student. “Instead of protecting our basic rights and ensuring that the culprits don’t get away, the administration is trying to impose a curfew on us. We don’t want locks, we want lights,” Ms. Singh said.

Following the molestation incident, the woman students submitted a memorandum to the Dean of Student Welfare. It states, “Boys come from outside and engage in objectionable acts like masturbation. They pelt stones, and use filthy language while passing by.”

Even woman professors feel the campus is unsafe. Professor Shobana Nerliker says there have been attempts to snatch her phone on at least two occasions. “I dread walking out in the evening. BHU is not safe for women,” she said.

The professor also defended the students’ right to demand better security. “On the one hand, PM Narenda Modi talks of empowering women, while on the other women demanding their rights are being oppressed. The students were only asking for security, weren’t they?” she said.

At the heart of the girls’ demand is the regularisation of the curfew timings. While the boys can stay out of their hostel till 10 pm, the girls in most hostels need to be back by 8 p.m.

Roshan Pandey, one of the many male students agitating for equal timings, says that even with the obvious differential treatment, the 8 pm curfew for girls is strictly enforced, while the 10 pm deadline for boys’ hostels is only on paper. “In practice, the boys have 24 hours access,” said Mr. Pandey.

Shradha Singh, proctor, admits that the women students have “genuine demands” and claims she promised to raise these before the administration. However, before any action could be taken, the protests turned violent, she says.

“I had asked the girls to give me time till 5pm on September 23. But the girls satisfied with our promises were suddenly hijacked by the boys. What could we do? We also started work on the CCTVs. But the boys come and break them with bricks.”