HYDERABAD: For the first time in the history of the University of Hyderabad would the Student Union Elections be seeing the nominature of 6 women candidates from various political parties fighting it out for four top positions in the union.
In the clash between SFI, ASA led United Democratic Alliance and ABVP-OBCF alliance, there are two women presidential candidates, S Sreeja Vasthavi and Aarti Nagpal from ASA and ABVP respectively. SFI which is the only party running elections alone and has put a single woman candidate, Anupama S, for the post of Joint Secretary.
The elections would also be unique in terms of having a woman majority panel given out by UDA. There are 4 women from the alliance fighting it out for posts of President, Joint Secretary, Cultural Secretary and Sports secretary.
"This is the first time in India that we have put up a panel that has women on all major positions. Our women collective panel have been chosen of their own merit and will lead the student community," said Sreeraj Poickondan, former President of ASA-SFI union.
However many students have been terming these nominations as mere tokenism. ABVP-OBCF candidate Aarti Nagpal especially was under the ire for her belonging to a party that was perceived to be anti-woman.
"When you cast a woman candidate, you immediately do away with the potential risk of being accused of not being gender sensitive. But most of us fail to see beyond the numbers, the mere presence of women in panel doesn't guarantee gender justice.," noted Sampurna Bhaumik, a PhD scholar from social sciences.
The agenda of gender justice has especially been crucial to HCU which saw at least 3 major cases of sexual harassment including sodomy, with the students even lodging FIR with local police.
A female student was also sexually abused by outsiders who crept into the campus from it's porus south campus boundaries. Many students have also used social media to express instances of harassment by fellow students.
However, the only woman president HCU ever saw, Sirisha Vepoor, observes that breaking the glass ceiling is also important.
"As the president of students union in 2013, I faced sexist attitude from the administration and other student organisations like ABVP. They are groomed to see women as puppets. Once an administration officer told me that if I bug him more with representations on students issues he would call my parents and tell them to get me married. I could overcome that only with the unflinching support of my organisation," she said.