DU women’s hostel residents break lock to protest curfew timings
New Delhi:
Residents of Delhi University’s (DU) Ambedkar Ganguly Students’ House for Women broke open the lock of their hostel late on Sunday night in protest of the alleged “arbitrary” rules and regulations, including curfew timings.
The students of at least five women hostels in DU also announced an indefinite strike from Thursday demanding the abolition of the “regressive hostel rules” in DU-affilliated colleges.
According to students of the women’s-only Ambedkar Ganguly hostel, the protest on Sunday was triggered when the hostel administration allegedly tried to “moral police” them.
“We were preparing for our annual hostel night where students perform different activities every year. The hostel warden came and started to comment on the songs on which the girls were dancing. She passed sexist comments on the dresses of some girls. When the girls resisted, the administration locked all doors of hostels from inside,s which remain open normally as the hostel is inside a guarded complex,” said a resident, requesting anonymity.
The students then broke open the lock using a hammer and came out to the main gate around 1:30 am. Students of other women hostels in the DU hostel complex in Mukherjee Nagar joined them and they continued to protest at the main gate till Monday morning.
“We have been protesting against the moral policing in DU hostels and regressive hostel rules since years. The administration has fixed curfew timings for all hostels -- 7:30 for the hostel catering to undergraduate students and 9 pm for post-graduation and masters students. We get only few late nights in a month. We will now sit on an indefinite strike on Thursday demanding abolition of all these restrictions in hostels,” said another hotel resident.
Hostel warden Ratnabali did not respond to the calls and texts send for a comment. Hostel provost Anu Aggarwal declined to comment on the matter.
