August 1 2018: today is orientation day – first day of college. Students from all over India with energy and motivation are attending orientation day. Many running different scenarios in their head, “I’ll study this much,” “I’ll get placed in that company,” “I’ll work hard,” etc.
Suddenly our chief hostel warden comes on stage and says “Our hostel policy has different rules for our male and female students. We expect our students to follow those rules. There was one rape in campus in year 197x,” (Some random old year, so old that some before our parents weren’t even born then). “So it’s advisable that our female students follow our rules.”
This is their way of motivating new students. Using rape in campus history as an example to discipline female students.
Blatant Racism
June 26 2018: after taking admission in college I went to the girls hostel to complete formalities for room allocation. I saw their rooms. Each room was allocated to two students but almirah in each room was one with vertical partition inside. No separate lock for each part that means both girls living in a room can take other’s material without each other’s knowledge.
I didn’t find it comfortable as I would have to keep money, original certificates, ATM cards, etc. in the almirah. I didn’t want these to be accessible to my roommate, especially without my permission. So I complained about this to the lady who was completing paperwork for room allocation. Her reply was, “Here, these things don’t happen. It must be happening where you come from but here people are honest. Not a single case of theft has happened till now.”
During the paperwork and possibly by my face she knew that I’m from Uttar Pradesh, in north India. She was a Malayali and I believe this is when her superiority and prejudice against North Indians came out. It may have made her think that because I’m from UP, I belong to a place where people are illiterate, poor, and dishonest.
I’d never had come to South India before that. I had studied names like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, etc. in books only. I came here the first time as the CCMT gave me NIT Calicut for MTech as per my GATE rank and this was my first incident where I faced racism.
Those Who Don’t Agree With Sexist Rules Can Leave College
After spending one whole year on GATE coaching and having spent time, money and energy to take admission in a college, spending that much time-money-energy it’s not feasible for any student to leave studying in between. The administration is well aware of this and use it as a reason to suppress any questions.
If any woman student should say anything about hostel rules, they are quickly told that they should leave college if they don’t agree with the rules.
Roll Call: But You Get Yelled At First
Here, there exists a system of daily roll call in the women’s hostel at 9:00 pm (again, a gender-biased rule). We being new students, were not informed about when we have to start giving our attendance.
Suddenly on the third day of college, a lady came knocking on each door asking us to give our roll call. We were totally new and didn’t know how and where to give roll call. Us first year girls stood together in a group of which incidentally I happened to be in the front of. I became the unwilling target of a round of shouting. I couldn’t tolerate her screaming because I had done nothing wrong. I replied back and we had an argument then and there. It was so intense that I cried after coming back to my room. This was the way a North Indian student was made to feel at home in South India. Disgusting!
Men At Work, So Cover Yourself
These days, LAN wiring is being undertaken in the women’s hostel, because of which lots of male workers roam inside the hostel premises. Not always is a lady attendant from the hostel accompanying them. The male staff roam around wherever the wiring is required and it’s the girls who have to immediately cover their legs or wear modest clothing. This means that even inside the hostel, we are not free.
The male workers outsiders yet they don’t have to follow any etiquette, but even though the girls live inside the hostel, they are the ones who have to cover up.
Kerala is orthodox, gender-biased, misogynistic and regressive. (I’ve zero prejudice. These all are my observations after living here for few months). They are literate but not educated.
They keep their female family members steeped in a strict, patriarchal environment. As majority of college employees from the director to the clerk level is Keralite only, their orthodox attitude towards their own women is automatically projected towards the women students (us).
All this under the guise of safety: no one will take any action if something bad actually happens to a woman student. Instead they’ll blame her behaviour. Everyone will just stand in the corner and watch the whole incident happening. At the end, everyone will blame the girl for ‘letting it happen to her.’
A review of the NITC women’s hostel on Quora is testament to the same.
The conclusion is excelling in academics is of no use when you can’t give a sense of freedom to your women students.
Note: We contacted NIT Calicut for a comment on the above realities and have received no response. This post will be updated once we receive a response.