NIFT students had held a protest against harassment on March 16

KANNUR: The Taliparamba police want the girl students of the National Institute of Fashion Technology ( NIFT ) to ‘maintain certain discipline and not go outside alone at night’. The police made the request after students had held a protest demonstration a week ago and said that over 50 instances of harassment had happened during the present semester.

At the same time, the overall feeling among the police is that such cases are not reported from any other campus because girls there do not venture out at odd hours and dress appropriately. Now, police have started night patrolling and CCTV cameras will be installed soon as a deterrent.

“We do everything possible to prevent such attacks. But we have a request; girls should maintain certain discipline and not go out alone at night,” said Taliparamba DSP K V Venugopal.

Though students had filed two complaints a couple of months ago and police arrested two persons, instances of such harassment are increasing said NIFT student Namitha Asif. “We represent a premier institute with students from all parts of the country. But we feel insecure outside the campus during evenings because anti-social elements target, stalk and harass us. At times the talk is crude with sexual overtones,” she said.

NIFT is part of a huge campus that includes Government Engineering College, Ayurveda Medical College and Kannur University. Girls studying at NIFT had complained that were a worried lot as they have to put up eve-teasing and harassment in the neighbourhood.

NIFT director Elangovan N said that the institute has a cosmopolitan culture. “This kind of eve-teasing is serious because it will affect the confidence of our students, especially girls,” he said.

Faculty member Mukthi Sumangala felt that such incidents reflected how women-friendly and gender-sensitive is the society.

Naeema Neefa, a postgraduate student at NIFT, said that when girls fight for a secure space and gender equality, people should stop considering them as mere physical objects.

