Several incidents of the posters of various societies being tampered with have come up at Miranda House. Catching the offender(s) is difficult.
On Monday, 11th February 2019, the North East Society of Miranda House put up a notice on their society board, stating “vandalism won’t be tolerated.” This came following the putting up of posters of Delhi Technological University (DTU) on their society board, which were then taken down by the General Secretary of the society, Kholneikim Cindy Haokip as they were “not where they are supposed to be.”
Image Credits: The North East Cell, Miranda House
The issue, however, is reflective of a larger problem of vandalism in the college, which has affected the posters and charts of various societies.This is the third time the posters put up by the North East Society have been damaged or interfered with in some way. The first incident occurred last year when the notices regarding some information were taken down. The second time it happened was in the last week of January when society posters were stripped off and those from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College and Jaypee Institute of Information Technology put up on the society board.
Following yesterday’s incident, some WhatsApp messages were forwarded in various groups, stating “A few guys from Delhi Technological University (DTU) came and ripped up the North Eastern Society’s board and pinned their posters on it instead”, and requested others to forward the same.
Image Credits: The North East Cell, Miranda House
However, in an official message, the society council made it clear that they did not have any part in the circulation of that message, while also stating “DTU is not responsible for this as this has been happening for quite some time. This is purely an internal matter and this is to clarify that DTU cannot be blamed for this.”
The North East Society isn’t the only one who has faced this problem. Nityah Wahi, the President of Enactus, the social entrepreneurship cell of the college, told us that their board was damaged during the recruitment season in August last year. “We had recently re-done our board to update it with new information relating to the past year’s activities and achievements and within a few days it was completely removed and thrown in the dustbin”, said Nityah.
“It’s happened a few times”, remarked Anoushka Parija, the President of the Women’s Development Cell (WDC) of the college. She also explained that after a few incidents of charts and pictures being tampered with, the WDC stopped putting them on the board.
Problems of identifying the person(s) behind this also exist. “It’s hard to think of a particular person because there’s no vendetta. But yes, it’s surely someone from college. In fact, it happens every year. So, it’s never the same person”, commented Anoushka. Nityah and Risa told us that since the CCTV didn’t cover the part of the corridor where the society boards are located, it became even more difficult to identify the doer.
The societies are trying to deal with the issue in various ways. “Social media presence against vandalism is being created. We try to encourage online dispersal of information as much as possible”, says Nityah. We learnt from Anoushka that the WDC also seems to be adopting other ways of disseminating information by using printable posters instead of handmade society charts.
Risa held the view that presidents of various societies should approach the Principal of the college to ask for installation of more CCTV cameras in that area. “We have requested the admin to look into this matter”, the official statement of the North East Society read.
Prateek Pankaj
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