We
are the students of a ‘top-ranked’ university of our country which is supposed
to teach the virtues of equality of all beings irrespective of caste, gender, colour
and creed. But does it uphold the virtues that it claims to preach? Does it
provide students an equal platform for education and growth? Where do the girl
students stand in this scenario?
One
cannot deny the prevalence of gender discrimination in the campus, which
expresses itself sometimes overtly, many times covertly. We can count endless
forms of discrimination which the girls of Panjab University face every day. The
cases of eve-teasing or harassment in the campus are rampant. The unending
queue of luxury cars in front of the hostel lanes and even around the campus
following you, followed by the looks you are given that are staring right
through your clothes is not uncommon. Further, even hostel rules for the boys’
and girls’ hostels are not common. It is ironic that there is time limit to the
movement of girls even inside the hostel premises! In the name of security, the
freedom of girl residents is further curtailed as it is not ‘safe’ for them to
move around the campus; which again poses serious questions at the very claim
of the university to grow students into conscious and rational beings. Further,
hostel residents are exploited with the heap of fines that they are asked to
pay over insignificant matters. At night the reading room of library is open
for studying, but not for girls! And the solution which authorities offer is to
build a reading room inside the girls’ hostels, further segregating the girls
from society. Although the girls comprise of 70% of the total students, but their
participation in the campus activities is minimal. Even their participation in
the Students’ elections, which supposed to be a democratic platform for
students to express their voice, is reduced just to add a glamour quotient to
the election campaigns.
But
these events are not exclusive to the university. This discrimination against
girl students is nothing but reflection of the socio-economic conditions and the
biases existing in the society. Since Ancient times, women and dalits have been
discriminated against and have been deprived of any opportunities to interact
and mingle with the society. Both were not allowed to avail the opportunities
for education. Public places were not open for them. Although we claim to have ‘developed’,
but still the old irrational and unscientific practices that are oppressive to
women and dalits continue to exist. Women of the world perform 2/3rd
of the labour, and of which the domestic labour doesn’t get any recognition as
it is considered their moral responsibility to perform. Although many
governments claim to have ‘empowered’ women, but still women own just 2% of the
private property of the world. We daily come across many cases of violence against
women be it incidents of foeticides, infanticides, dowry deaths, honor
killings, molestation, sexual harassment or rapes!
As
we have already discussed how the discrimination prevails in our campus. The anti-women
attitude of authorities again came to light when it was proposed to install grills
in the balconies of girls’ hostels in order to prevent the rising number of
suicides. The discontent among youth is rising due to problems like unemployment,
job insecurities etc. Further the present socio-economic system encourages
individualism which further reduces the scope for interaction and discourses
between humans, thus aggravating the situation. Here instead of addressing the
root cause of the phenomenon and taking suitable measures, the authorities
very illogically reduced the matter to just being the issue of the girls and
issued a fatwa to install grills further pushing them behind the bars (which can’t
be seen as a solution by any sensible human being, on the contrary it forces an
already distressed person to more suffocation!).
Now
the question arises that if we acknowledge the existence of such discrimination,
then how do we stand up against it? When we realize that such events do not
occur in isolation but are the manifestations of the institution of patriarchy operating
in the society, it is evident that without making conscious and organized efforts,
the system can’t be shattered from its foundations. So, we appeal all the
students to come forward and unite to fight against any kind of discrimination and
all kinds of anti-women ideologies and practices which prevail in our campus
and our society and together we shall work towards building a new society which
would be free from any bias of caste, class or gender.