Gender sensitisation key to making DU fest season safe, say women students

Women students in Delhi University demand gender sensitisation and accountability from male students for safety during fests.

Amid the ongoing fest season at Delhi University (DU), students of its women’s colleges have pointed out that DU’s safety guidelines put the onus of ensuring security at such events on them, limiting their enjoyment. According to them, the guidelines should also focus on gender sensitisation and holding male participants and their colleges accountable for their conduct.

“Women students are unable to enjoy the fest as managing crowds is difficult,” said Monika Vij, a convener of the students’ union at Miranda House, which held its annual cultural fest, ‘Tempest’, on April 5 and 6. Ms. Vij said although women students felt safer this year, “the message should be loud and clear: other colleges should introspect, not us”.

She said the student body had organised the fest as per the latest advisory issued by DU Proctor Rajni Abbi. Dated January 11, the guidelines in the advisory include securing a no-objection certificate from the police, ensuring entry through registration forms, erecting multiple entry and exit points, and installing CCTV cameras at college gates and washrooms.

Ms. Abbi said all colleges have been following the guidelines and the measure of installing CCTVs was added after women students from a DU college alleged that they were secretly filmed while changing inside a washroom at IIT Delhi during the institute’s fest last year. On providing gender sensitivity training to male students, the DU Proctor said no such action has been initiated.

The advisory was issued following complaints of harassment by women students during fests over the past few years. In 2023, unknown men scaled the walls of Indraprastha College for Women (IPCW), shouted slogans, and harassed students during its fest, ‘Shruti’. In 2022, students of Miranda House alleged that several men entered the college and indulged in “catcalling and sexist sloganeering” during the ‘Diwali Mela’. In 2020, men allegedly harassed and molested students of Gargi College during its fest, ‘Reverie’.

Professor Bijayalaxmi Nanda, principal of Miranda House, said in compliance with the advisory, registrations for its fest were done using a mobile application. She said while students from all colleges were allowed to compete at the fest, only students from Miranda House were permitted to be part of the audience.

“Fests are no longer advertised in a big way so as to not attract unruly crowds,” said a former student of Gargi College.