Girls allege discriminatory hostel rules at university in Chhattisgarh, stage protest

A student of the university alleged that the girls and especially first year students have been stopped from wearing shorts outside their rooms and in the campus on the pretext of the mess workers being around and for their own ‘safety’.

The women inmates of Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU) hostel in Raipur are protesting since Monday night against what they call discriminatory hosel rules that prescribes a dress code for them and debar them from using the common areas.

Students of Hidayatullah National Law University in Raipur. (HT Photo)

In an impromptu protest, the girl students sat outside the hostel on Monday braving incessant rains and also took a midnight March to Freedom on Tuesday morning. A campaign also started on social media which says, “We won’t leave unless our all demands are fulfilled.”

“The protest has primarily started because of the discriminatory implementation of rules in the girls hostel. While both the girls’ and the boys’ hostel have hostel timing of 10:30 pm it is only implemented in the girls’ hostel. The warden has repeatedly harassed girl students over their clothes and timings. The common areas in the girls’ hostel have been locked,” said a law student of the university, requesting anonymity.

She further alleged that the girls and especially first year students have been stopped from wearing shorts outside their rooms and in the campus on the pretext of the mess workers being around and for their own ‘safety’.

“There have been occasions when the parents have been called up at 10:30 in the night to inform that their daughter is wearing shorts outside the hostel,” another student, who was also not willing to be quoted, said. A law student who is leading the protest said that the protest is about ‘freedom of movement’ within the campus and casual instances of sexism by the heads of the university.

Reacting to the protest, registrar in-charge Ayan Hazra said, “One of the major issues is the timing by which the students should enter the hostel. We have 10.30 in-timing for the hostels but they are demanding that there should be no such timing and girls should be free to roam in the campus, which is technically not possible. Then they are want library and cafeteria to remain open for 24 hours which means that university will be open 24 hours. Then there is some issue of warden, which we will resolve.”

Hazra further said that the authority is taking steps to resolve the issue. “ We will talk to the students and a meeting with appropriate authorities has been called and I am confident that the issues will be resolved,” he said.