After the issue of ‘gate-crash weddings,’ NIT (National Institute of Technology), Kurukshetra has been in the limelight again for imposing restrictions on its female students. This order was issued by the administrator of Kalpana Chawla hostel. According to the students, the order read that the students of Kalpana Chawla hostel who are found loitering within premises after 6:00 p.m. will face disciplinary action.
This move has brought mixed reactions from the people on the campus. Some are seeing it as a positive step and some are criticising it for being too restrictive. “It’s an immoral step that the hostel authorities have taken. How can they impose such restrictions on us when we are here to enjoy a free life? Isn’t it too constrained?,” said a female student, pursuing BTech from NIT, Kurukshetra.
“It is becoming really hard for us to live in this space, where we don’t even have any capacity to experience our way of life. By imposing such restrictions, they are forcing us to reiterate. This news has not gained much focus in media and really, it’s unfair.”
This is not the first time that restrictive timings have been an issue for female students. Curfew timings have also led many girl students to launch a movement namely Pinjra Tod and conduct protests in the capital for the demand for equal treatment.
“This hostel, which is named after the famous astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who has been an inspiration for the bravery of women, is still enforcing such absurd rules on us,” said Sushmita, a BTech student in her second year, at NIT, Kurukshetra. “Why are these curfew timings being imposed only on girl students, and why not on boys as well? Girls have the same freedom as boys.”
Others are also pointing out that institutions like the Kerala High Court have even passed a verdict and quashed such sexist rules. Many students have also reacted and expressed their disagreement with this order.
“Recently, at NIT, Kurukshetra, an order was imposed on girl students asking them to not go out of campus after 6:00 p.m. Article 15 of our Constitution talks about the abolition of discrimination on the basis of caste, language, creed, sex and place of birth. But this rule is discriminating on the basis of sex, as boys have got all the liberty and girls are facing such restrictions,” said Sushant, an English Honours student at Delhi University. “By imposing such restrictions, our country is going back to the old norms and stereotypes and is imposing the same things which were imposed earlier.”
This practice to curb the rights of women across various campuses in India has become a trend for a while now. In 2015, women from educational institutions across the country, especially in Delhi, joined Pinjra Tod to speak against their suppression, fight against curfew timings and gender discrimination. Examples of similar colleges taking charge range from Jamia Millia Islamia in 2015, to NIT, Calicut in 2016 and Punjabi University in 2017. Moreover, in a more recent battle, even the High Court of Kerala sided with the women, at Sree Keralavarma College at Thrissur in Kerala, in their battle against their college’s sexist rules that prevented girls from going out for movie shows and set a curfew for their entry into their hostels.