By Shalini S. Sharma
Students of BHU who were beaten up by police on 23rd September outside the main gate of the university.
PTI photo
It was astonishing (because it was unbelievable), pitiable (because it was young female students and not hooligans) and shameful (because instead of protecting, the police was beating them), in that order, to see the visuals of girls running helter skelter as policemen gunned for them, outside the haloed portals of Banaras Hindu University (BHU). Astonishing because it was unbelievable, pitiable because it was young The girls had been sitting on a peaceful protest after an incident of “eve teasing” a previous evening, as the Vice-Chancellor put it, and all that they were demanding were steps to ensure their safety. It was embarrassing to see the very basic nature of their demand. Girl after girl, being spoken to by television reporters, was voicing the same thing – we need more streetlights, we need CCTV cameras to deter miscreants, we need more safety so that our parents allow us to stay in hostels and complete our education. They were lathi charged for demanding this? Is that so much to ask for? Isn’t it the responsibility of the university to ensure all these things in the first place?
If the unfortunate incident of a girl being harassed by local ruffians was not bad enough, insult was added to injury by the warden who on hearing the complaint, questioned the girls for being out at that time. Not finding any solution or satisfactory answers, or steps to prevent such a thing from happening in future, the girls sat on a dharna. They wanted to meet the Vice Chancellor but they were stopped by the police. When things went out of control with police lathi charge, the Vice Chancellor tried to dismiss it by saying “it’s a huge campus…if we listen to every girl we will not be able to run the university… that outsiders are creating trouble in the campus…. that the protests are politically motivated etc etc.” If all this not a big farce, one doesn’t know what is. The biggest casualty in this episode will be the flight of female students from the campus as their parents will not allow them to stay there after this. At least some will leave for sure. So much for beti padhao.
Eight things which this entire episode highlights are:-
- Most Vice Chancellors in universities are not fit for the job. They might have been good academics but as administrators and leaders, they are a big zero. They are unable to respond adequately, with maturity and with responsibility in situations which demand quick thinking and quick action. They either underestimate the gravity of the situation or are surrounded by sycophants and fools who lead them to believe that everything is fine in their universe and university, even when it is not. Alarmingly now, they come with a typical mindset which sees all faults with girls and who are won’t to laugh away the follies of boys as “boys will be boys, hence…”. The recent spate of politically motivated appointments has only worsened this situation.
- Take-over by regressive forces is almost complete, specially in states like Uttar Pradesh. It is not just BHU which does not allow wi-fi and internet for girls. Go to any medical college or technical institution which requires compulsory stay in hostels for girls as well as boys in this state and you will get an entire list of do’s and don’ts for girls.
- Lately it’s been only centrally-run institutions which have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. These include University of Hyderabad (students there have voiced solidarity with BHU and say they can understand why the BHU girls are protesting), Jawaharlal Nehru University, Banaras Hindu University and NIT Srinagar.
- Had a similar thing happened in a private institution, the promoters would have been immediately hauled up by the government and their permissions revoked.
- It is not just a centrally-run, coveted, premier institution such as BHU which has poor infrastructure as far as security is concerned – read no lights on streets, large stretches of dimly-lit areas on campus, no closed-circuit cameras, no monitoring or proper maintenance of cameras wherever they are installed – but a large number of other centrally run institutions also have a similar scenario.
- If this is the situation in Banaras – which happens to be the constituency of the Prime Minister of India – one can imagine what the status would be in other cities.
- BHU Vice Chancellor said somewhere that the students were instigated by “outsiders” to stage a dharna as the Prime Minister was due to visit the city the next day. Even if one were to concede that the girls were instigated by others, the fact remains that they had a valid grievance which had not been adequately addressed by then. The argument that this was staged to project the Prime Minister’s constituency in bad light on the day of his visit does not hold ground as the PM was not slated to visit BHU and any other day would have made no difference. And, it speaks volumes of the mental makeup of the leader of the institute who sees every possible political angle in the episode but does not deem fit to condemn the attack on the honour of the girl nor announces strict action against the culprits, nor says that the security and the freedom of girls will be protected at all costs.
- For all the sloganeering of beti bachao beti padhao, the present government pays only lip service to standing up for the rights of girl children. In reality, all they want is for their girls to cover themselves up from head to toe; be only seen, only if needed, not heard; be the epitome of Bharatiya Sanskriti, slog, slave and keep the men happy. The recent outpourings of some of their choice leaders only point in this direction.
(The writer is a freelance journalist)
