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‘What's the point of merit?’ Woman recalls giving up LSR Delhi seat over safety
A LinkedIn user shared her experience of giving up a chance to attend Lady Shri Ram College due to safety concerns raised by her parents.
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A LinkedIn user has gone viral after recalling how she gave up her chance to study at Delhi’s Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) when her parents refused to let her move to the city. She said she had been a merit holder and initially struggled to understand her parents’ safety concerns, but now sees their decision differently amid ongoing conversations around women’s safety in Delhi.
Looking back on the experience, LinkedIn user Amodini Rathore wrote, “I cried SO badly the day my parents refused to send me to Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi. It felt like the worst day of my life. I was a merit holder and I had done everything right to earn a seat in one of the most prestigious colleges in the country.”
She said getting into LSR represented years of hard work. “For me, it wasn’t just a college, it was something I had genuinely worked for. I was not at all on social media till Class 12, never too involved in distractions and honestly, a little boring in the way I lived my life. My world revolved around marks and the hope that it would all lead me somewhere I wouldn’t regret later,” she wrote.
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According to Rathore, her parents believed she was not prepared to live alone in Delhi and told her that the world was not as safe as she thought. At the time, she felt that their decision was unfair.
“For the longest time, I believed they were wrong. Today, when my entire feed is filled with what happened near LSR, I’m not so sure anymore,” she wrote.
She then questioned why discussions around women’s safety often focus on restricting women’s movements instead of addressing the circumstances that make them vulnerable.
“Every time something this horrific happens, why is the response to control access of women instead of fixing the system?” she wrote. “We keep redesigning women’s lives around danger instead of eliminating the danger itself.”
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How did social media react?
Her post struck a chord with LinkedIn users, with several sharing similar experiences of having their education or career choices affected by safety concerns.
One user wrote, “This one genuinely hurt to read. The idea that someone can do everything ‘right’, work so hard towards an opportunity and still have their world made smaller because the world around them isn’t safe is such a painful reality.”
Another commented, “Exactly! Why does women’s safety so often become women’s restriction?”
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A third user shared, “This happened with me too. I got a seat in the South Campus and felt, finally, I would live alone. But just because it was Delhi, my mother said no. I got so angry, but now when I see what is actually happening in Delhi, the fear keeps coming back. And the most frustrating part is that because of these cases, we are giving up the things we want the most.”
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)
