HUBBALLI: Women students at the Indian Institute of Technology- Dharwad (IIT-D) say they are not allowed to step out of their hostels in the night, even if it is to go to the library within the campus, as per a new rule. For, the women’s hostel is locked at 9.30 pm ‘for their own safety’. The students are forced to remain in their hostel whereas the male counterparts are allowed to use the campus facilities round-the-clock.
“This curfew deprives us of our basic right to equality,” said a student.
On August 14, the Dean, Student Welfare, held a meeting with the B Tech and PhD women students. There the new timing was announced saying it is unsafe for women to travel at night to the Academic building. The building is less than a mile away from the Girls’ hostel and is well within the campus and is well guarded by security personnel round-the-clock.
Following the new rule, the girl students and researchers have written to the Internal Complaints Committee explaining the problems faced by them and also proposed some solutions. The letter was signed by all the girls and submitted to the chairperson of the committee. On Monday, a meeting was called to discuss the alternatives with the girl students, but no decision was made on changing the timings.
An official from the IIT-D said the rule was implemented keeping the security aspects of both boys and girls in mind. “The IIT-D has told the students not to venture outside the campus after 9.30 pm. There are no such restrictions within the campus. In case there are any, those will be addressed. The decision was taken after studying the timings of the residential education institutes in Hubballi-Dharwad including BVB, UAS and SDM Engineering College. There is a busy highway right in front of the institute and we made certain rules keeping the safety of students in mind,” the official said.
“Such a rule hurts our self-respect. The institute has imposed the curfew stating that all girls must be present inside the hostel building by 9.30 pm, failing which there would be serious consequences. On being requested to grant permission to study in the mess at night which is less than 50 mts away from the hostel, the Dean refused,” a student told TNIE.
“The rule deprives us of our basic right to equality. It limits access to all labs, libraries, classrooms, canteens and academic campus as a whole after dinner, which, however, remains open 24 hours for the male students. This makes it impossible for us to perform well in academics, participate in course projects, various competitions in and around the campus and going to the city to buy necessities,” the student said.
Another student pointed out that in all other IITs in India no such rule is imposed.
“IIT work culture is quite different from other colleges as inside the IIT campus students are given freedom to work day and night in order to achieve excellence. But such a restriction limits the potential of girls as the amount of productive time inside academic building is almost halved as compared to boys,” the student said.