NEW DELHI: The girls living in the Daulat Ram college hostel on Monday submitted a resolution to Delhi University's Vice Chancellor’s office demanding the resignation of the facility’s warden, matron and another person in charge, as part of their ongoing agitation against alleged moral policing, high fees and the strict rules.
The protesters took to the streets on Monday and started sloganeering outside the Arts Faculty. After nearly two hours, the authorities announced that a committee would look into their grievances and take a decision within the next two days.
“We pay Rs 1.20 lakh every year to stay in a hostel whose authorities keep a check on our clothes and even our Instagram accounts. We are told to call our local guardian if we fail to meet the 7.30 p.m. curfew by 2 minutes,” said one of the protesters.
She alleged that the administration was lackadaisical when it came to addressing maintenance concerns in the hostel. She said a portion of the ceiling in a bathroom recently fell on one of the residents. “Even though she didn’t get injured, the maintenance of the building is a huge concern,” added the sloganeering youngster.
The protests began on Saturday when the inmates moved out of the hostel premises in large numbers and stayed out till 4 am on Sunday.
“We kept protesting till the time our principal (Savita Roy) intervened. She has been in our support but the hostel chairperson always has the final say, leaving us helpless. The warden even manhandled the principal when she came ahead for us,” said a second-year student who did not want to be named.
On Sunday, she said a silent protest was held and it was taken forward on Monday, with about 140 girls from the nearly 200-bedded hostel, who raised slogans of freedom.“Many of the day scholars, along with the teachers, have shown support and joined us in our protest,” she said, adding: “We will again be out on the streets if our demands are not met.”
According to several of the protesters on the scene, the warden habitually harassed them with regards to their clothing, their timings and the company they kept. The students said the protest would go on and that they were raising “voices of freedom”.