The North Campus of Delhi University is witnessing student-led protests over curfews at women’s hostels. The protests, led by women’s rights collective Pinjra Tod, began on Wednesday, October 10.
Pinjra Tod has put forth a set of demands in front of the Delhi University administration, seeking removal of several restrictions and arbitrary fees in addition to curfews at women’s hostels.
The main demands by Pinjra Tod are:
- Remove curfew timings from all women’s hostels in Delhi University and hostels of all colleges affiliated to DU including the college hostels run by private trusts and organisations.
- Allow 24 hour entry into women’s hostels, a resident should never be denied entry into the hostel.
- Abolish the concept of local guardians for students, while keeping a provision for an emergency local contact number.
- Replace daily attendance by wardens with register sign-in at the gate.
Students from various colleges and universities gathered at Arts Faculty in North Campus on Wednesday and asked the varsity’s proctor to respond to their charter of demands. According to the students, the proctor did not address the demands of the students, following which the Mall Road on the campus was blocked.
“We didn't get answers to any of our questions, but we did get one. It takes a chakka jaam to get the proctor to even read the charter of demands submitted by students of the university,” said Diya Davis, a student told The Quint.
“They behaved as if they had never seen the demands before and left without even bothering to address us,” she said.
Calls made by The Quint to the proctor of Delhi University were not answered.
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