'Univs are a place to meet new people but they are taking this freedom away'

Meenu Mathur, second year philosophy student,

(As told to Himanshi Dhawan)

'PG students can't go out without a pass'

Nikita Arora, alumnus, Patiala Girls College

(As told to Sonam Joshi)

'Hostel shuts by 6.30 pm, library by 5!'

Thahira, student of College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram

(As told to Jisha Surya)

'I couldn't go out to watch a film even though it was part of the syllabus'

Vaishnavi, alumnus, Amrita University, Coimbatore

(As told to Vinayashree Jagadeesh)

Curfews and crazy rules are the norm across colleges. Sunday Times spoke to female students to bring you a true picture of India's sexist campuses Feisty Meenu is the first girl in her family to have left home to study. Studying at BHU in Varanasi, she thought, would give her freedom and a life very different from the sheltered environment in her home town Gorakhpur. Instead, life on campus came with its set of restrictions: Don't wear shorts to the mess, don't stay out of the hostel beyond 8 pm, no access to the library after 4 pm, no food after dinner time.Meenu remembers being quite intimidated by the long list of don'ts in the beginning. "Then we realised that it was just an attempt to scare us," she says. "If my parents don't have a problem with what I wear, how can anyone else dictate what I wear and who I meet," she asks.Like many other students, Meenu feels that the pioneering spirit behind the educational institute has withered along the way. Male students tease, throw stones, pass comments and even molest girls with impunity. Wearing short clothes or talking to friends who are boys invites lewd comments. There was even an incident of a boy masturbating in front of the girl's hostel window.As a response the students demanded CCTVs, lighting up dark spots on the sprawling grounds and more guards to secure the campus. Instead they received lessons on moral science, advice to stay indoors and keep their windows shut. "University is a place to meet new people and share views but the authorities are taking this freedom away by constantly questioning what we are doing or what we are wearing," says the BHU student who took part in last week's protest and sustained injuries in the lathi charge.'I took one look at the hostel rules, and decided that I wasn't staying here,” says Nikita, who moved to Patiala from Jalandhar to do her bachelor's degree in 2015.It was worse than school, she says. A 6 pm curfew, and even PG students over 22 were not allowed to go out without a pass. First year students could go out just once a week. "There was even a no-mobile rule but until 2015, but that changed after the students campaigned against it.”Then there were the informal don'ts – no shorts, tight jeans or sleeveless tops – basically anything that reveals your body structure – outside the college. "Once in my first year, I was wearing a long skirt, and a male teacher asked me if this was the way I'd be dressing in college,” recounts Nikita.She feels that most female students don't protest because they come from very patriarchal families. "They've moved here from neighbouring villages and cities of Punjab to study. This is their only chance of getting an education, and almost all these students have had to fight to come here.”Even before Thahira joined the College of Engineering, its female students had sounded the bugle of protest by launching the 'Break the Curfew' campaign. But even that didn't make the college authorities budge. "Though the campaign was highly inspiring in terms of participation and the debate it triggered, doors of the women's hostel continue to shut by 6.30 pm. And rather than let the girls use the library till late, they restricted its timing even for boys till 5 pm,” says Thahira, a third year student doing an electronics and communication degree.Whether it's attending a robotics event or going out in search of placements, the girls need permission to leave the hostel. "If we are late, we have to explain to the warden, matron and security guard, and their tone is always suspicious,” says the outspoken Thahira.The curbs on free movement are always under the pretext of security. Parents are counselled about possible 'security issues' if girls are allowed to go out after 6.30 pm so that they support the regressive rules.Interestingly, at the time of admission, parents are made to agree to restrictive hostel timings. "When my father asked if students could come late in case of exigencies, the college authorities cited security issues and got consent.”Vaishnavi was a communication and journalism student with film reviews as part of the PG curriculum. But guess what? She didn't do a single one. "The department had to give a letter to the warden so that we could go to a movie theatre to review a film. But this was leading to so many issues that film review was, in fact, taken off the syllabus and I never turned in any review,” says Vaishnavi.What particularly irked her was the dress code with its mandatory dupattas. "Inside the hostel we couldn't wear three fourth pants; not even when we were going out of the college for an outing after securing a pass. We had to wear long tops which covered the 'bottom', whatever they meant by bottom.”And they may have been studying communication but communicating with the opposite gender was a no-no. "Resident teachers would go around corridors after college hours and question guys and girls if they were hanging around in groups. Even group projects were difficult to do as there was no space where we could talk after college hours,” she complains."Then there were random checks in the hostel. Obviously it was all irritating. It felt like every part of your day was being monitored. We step into a university to educate ourselves about the world and open ourselves up for possibilities. But it is quite impossible for that to happen when you are monitored 24/7.”It was difficult to complain as most of these hostel rules are not written out, she says. "It was an autonomous institution so they could make up their own rules, and students didn't really raise their voices lest it had a negative impact on their academic record.”