The Hindu : New Delhi News : A voice against harassment

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 28, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

A voice against harassment

The campus may not be getting any safer for women, but two years after Delhi University introduced an ordinance on a Committee Against Sexual Harassment, students seem finally to have found a voice.

With as many as 58 colleges of Delhi University now armed with a Committee Against Sexual Harassment, awareness is on the rise. And with it the number of students ready to come out into the open about the kind of behaviour unacceptable to them. If the Women's Studies and Development Centre that is currently monitoring the working of the various committees is to be believed, then the initiative has more than helped in changing the mind-set.

From students facing harassment from classmates to researchers getting a rough deal from their supervisors, the Committee has even received cases of girls facing harassment from their own kind. And while the cases open up a new window on the kind of hardships that students have to often put up with, there is reason for cheer too, the University authorities feel.

"It is important to understand that the number of cases is not an indication of the fact that such incidents are happening more now. It only goes to show that students now feel secure about the system and don't feel any pressure about coming out into the open. The Committee has clearly created more awareness and we believe it is great because it sends out the right signals,'' points out Malashri Lal, Director of the Women's Studies and Development Centre.

The Centre admits that managment of the Committee may vary from college to college, with some being better than the others when it comes to creating awareness about the Committee and its powers. But with gender issues finally becoming a part of the campus culture, the Centre feels that the setting up of women's studies and addition of gender as a topic in the restructured B.A programme will only help in improving things for the better.

"The women's studies programme that we conducted in Jankidevi and Indraprastha College actually allowed even boys to take the course. And most of them admitted that the course had completely changed their outlook and attitude towards issues concerning women,'' adds Prof. Lal.

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Their interest in the University of Delhi may be anything but academic, but ensuring an audience bang opposite the Viceregal Lodge these days is a "rowdy" bunch that even the cops seem to keep off. Housing the office of the Vice-Chancellor and other senior University officials, the Viceregal Lodge may be cordoned off by heavy security and policemen, but for the monkeys that seem to literally dominate the adjoining ridge area, police barricades clearly don't mean much. With the barricades acting as their seat, these monkeys enjoy bananas and any other goodies that a hawker might be selling nearby, with most passers-by preferring to change their route rather than disturb them.

Lakshmi B. Ghosh

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