A student spends most of his/her day in the campus, but is it really a safe place? With recent incidents of sexual harassment at college fests, the dilemma has become even more prominent in the eyes of the youth.
Meghna Singh, a student from Miranda House, got masturbated on at SRCC’s annual fest, Crossroads. But she isn’t the only one who has gone through an assault like this – many students have recounted their horrific accounts where they have been sexually harassed on campus. When Meghna told the details of what happened with her at SRCC on social media, thousands of people didn’t believe her. Soon enough, she became the topic for jokes, memes and internet trolls where people labelled her as a liar.
Meghna’s story might be the first one to surface online, but it isn’t the first time a girl on campus has been assaulted like this. Sukhwinder Singh’s gig at Hindu College’s fest Mecca also saw a molestation incident where a girl got groped twice in public. One would think that being a student friendly area, the campus would be a safe place where one could walk freely, but is that really so?
Public gatherings like fests and concerts have witnessed many incidents like this take place and most of the time the victims don’t talk about it. And not just public gatherings; horrific incidents involving middle aged men on bikes stopping in front of girls’ PGs and masturbating to the ones standing in the balcony occur on campus on a daily basis.
Roads around colleges become almost abandoned after college gets over, because of the hostel/PG deadlines, and the empty streets have become a nightmare for anyone who is walking on them post 8 pm. Theft and assaults happen regularly and the police is doing the least about it.
As a resident of the campus and a student of the University, me and my friends have faced similar situations where the length of our skirts got men on bikes to slow down next to our rickshaws and call us out. Where simply walking on the roads of Kamla Nagar have gotten old men to masturbate to us. Where being part of protests got us groped and threatened with rape.
On a campus that is clearly not safe, it is appalling that people had problems believing Meghna’s story.
Image credits: DU Express
Anagha Rakta
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