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Hindu College Boys’ Hostel ended its strike on Wednesday, 26th February 2020 after the administration agreed to their demands. Three students were on a hunger strike since Monday. 

The residents of Hindu College Boys’ Hostel had posed the list of long-standing demands to the Principal on Monday, 24th February 2020 and on her failure to address them, they began an indefinite strike at 1:30 pm in front of the college administration. Around 50-60 students were protesting against three major issues:

  1. Merit criterion that was increased for the readmission of second and third years including PWD students
  2. Resolving of Wi-Fi problems. 
  3. Reinstallation of hostel boundaries that were broken for the construction of a food joint PAM (Pizza and More) within the hostel premises. 

The present criterion for admissions and retention of seats in the hostel is 6.5 CGPA for Arts and 7.0 for Science and Commerce courses and considered averse to the students participating in extracurricular activities or preparing for entrance exams. The residents demanded revision in the re-admission criteria, decreasing it to the previous 6 CGPA for Arts/Humanities courses and 6.5 CGPA for Science and Commerce courses and scrapping it altogether for Persons With Disabilities (PwD) students. In the official application to the Principal, the President of the Hostel Union writes that in case a student fails to maintain the criteria then his contribution in ECA and Sports should be considered. 

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Image Caption: Students write to the Principal for redressal of their demands. 

Regarding the Wi-Fi issue a resident of the hostel quotes, “Wi-Fi concerns the accessibility of study material to the students since DU servers provide access to academic websites and even general connectivity considering the poor signals around the campus.” In fact, a payment of Rs 3,500 was taken at the beginning of the academic year for replacing the existing Wi-Fi system but no action was taken. 

Pizza and More (PAM) is a shop in the college that was being shifted in one of the hostel lawns since a new building was being built over there. According to the students, the construction of the cafe in the hostel lawns is an attack on their democratic spaces where they can sit, talk, organize events or play cricket. A resident anonymously told us, “The decision of PAM being constructed in our hostel lawns indicates the increasing privatization in our college. Moreover, it would create inconvenience for the residents especially the ones residing in rooms facing these lawns since their privacy would be in threat and also the cooking would cause a lot of smoke”. Some parts of the construction were started without the consent of the hostel union after which it was destroyed by the students the very next day.  

The students ended their strike on Wednesday, 26th February 2020 after two of their three demands were accepted. They have been assured by the authorities that they will look into the Wi-Fi problems and construction of PAM. The residents reported, “The Principal told us that the readmission criteria are decided by the warden and hostel committee. Since we could get her to accept what was in her hands, we stopped protesting in front of the Principal’s office. The warden also has assured us that the hostel committee will try to relax the criteria especially for PWD students.”

DU Beat reached out to the Union members and residents on hunger strike for their statement, but is yet to receive an official response from their end. This report will be updated as and when the parties comment.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Aishwaryaa Kunwar

[email protected] 

 

This Valentine’s Day, let’s take out a page from University’s history. The chapter is regarding Hindu College’s (in)famous Virgin Tree (V-tree).

For those who are untouched with the lore of the V-tree, it’s is a tree present near the Hindu College library which  has been the site of a hostel ceremony observed every Valentine’s Day. A pundit from the hostel is appointed to do a puja around the tree which has condoms hanging from it and the poster of a Bollywood diva as Damdami Mai (any female celebrity in trend, hypersexualised for this purpose).

With the women’s hostel set up in recent years, a Love-Guru is also chosen to be worshipped by the women students. Yes, this is surely problematic but over the years, many saw this as just a casual joke in their ‘sex-driven college days’. The critics of the practice found their voices lost in oblivion. But since the past few years (especially last year), there was a whole clamour of voices echoing all across Hindu College.

Last year, the Women’s Development Cell of the College tried to reach an agreement with the Boys’ Hostel, who seemed to be pretty adamant on their stance of preserving the ‘College tradition’. But later on, the situation seemed to be manipulated, twisted, and turned a lot by the students and media alike, as the organisation Pinjratod too got involved, crossing the College’s gates on the eve of 14th February. This seemed to have hurt the ego of a majority of boys from the hostel, and they decided to conduct the V-Day puja with more pomp and fervour now. A few critics and Pinjratod members tried to raise slogans around the tree but to no avail.

Delving on last year’s incidents anymore would deserve a report of its own, and you can brush up your history with the Virgin Tree in DU Beat’s website itself. Now coming back to the present day, the situation seems to be quite perplexing. Ground reports suggest that a conscious voice among the students who stand against the V-tree ceremony has increased. At the same time, the ‘tradition preservers’ are still adamant.

On the 7th of February, talks tried to take place at the College’s New Academic Block but the adamant ones didn’t even agree to sit down at the discussion. Most of them stood tall and shushed the critics, justifying that they just want this puja to happen for the sake of the College’s culture and are not misogynistic, unlike the ceremony which they so vehemently support.

The main points of critique around this V-day ceremony are that it adds to the narrow view of looking at a ‘desirable’ male or female. So, a person is desirable, only if he/she looks like a Hrithik Roshan or a Disha Patani? In their defence, the hostel feels that this ceremony should be taken as a fun activity and they tried to accommodate other sexualities too (through a tokenistic rainbow-coloured heart featured in a poster hanging from the tree last year). The very fact that a pundit is appointed and a Hindu-style puja takes place, bothers some. Hindu College has ‘Hindu’ in its name but is a secular space, with no benefits given to any one religion.

What will happen now on the 14th, that, only time will tell but there’s still some hope brewing among Hinduites. A source from the Girls’ Hostel told us that they are planning to run a campaign wherein, the critics can try and
simplify the entire matter and actually explain to people what is the V-tree and why they are opposing it. There
are also hushed-down talks happening for a possible alternative ceremony around the tree that would not offend any religion, caste, or gender.

An all-night protest on the event (not by Pinjratod) is also likely on the eve of Valentine’s. Whatever be the case, it’s evident that on Valentine’s Day, love might be in the air but with revolution…

Shaurya Singh Thapa
[email protected] 

The race to get a hostel seat has begun. There are a few of these coveted spots that would enhance the campus experience of a student. Almost all colleges offer seats on the basis of merit in the form of cut-offs. Here is a complete guide to hostel admissions:

  1. Applying: The applicant must apply in a separate hostel form along with the actual application at the college premises. The forms are available  at the college premises although some like Hindu College have online application forms that have to be submitted in hard copy. This has to be done within the stipulated deadline issued by the individual colleges. This is chiefly an offline process and the candidate has to submit the required documents along with the hostel form available at the college premises.

These are the links for the hostel admissions forms at various colleges. Where forms are not available online, we have provided links to the pages which the candidates have to monitor to see the merit list. Candidates are advised to keep on monitoring the website to see when the merit list of applicants who secured a seat are announced. The actual merit list is available on the College website and notice boards.  

For SRCC:
Girls Hostel: http://www.srcc.edu/girls-hostel

Boys Hostel: http://www.srcc.edu/boys-hostel

For Kirori Mal College: http://www.kmcollege.ac.in/

For St. Stephen’s: https://www.ststephens.edu/

For SGTB Khalsa College (For girls): http://www.sgtbkhalsadu.ac.in/g-hostel.jsp

For Miranda House: http://mirandahouse.ac.in/residence/admissionprocedure.php

For Ramjas College: http://ramjas.du.ac.in/hostel_in_detail.php?id=123&cid=15

For Hindu College:

For girls: http://hinducollege.ac.in/download/2018/Application%20Form%20hostel%202018-2019.pdf

For boys: http://www.hinducollege.ac.in/download/forms/2017/Application%20Form%20hostel.pdf

For Hansraj College: http://www.hansrajcollege.ac.in/admissions/admissionupdates.php

For Daulat Ram College: http://dr.du.ac.in/index.php

For Sri Venkateshwara College:

For boys: http://www.svc.ac.in/HostelApplicationForm2018-2019.pdf

For Lady Shri Ram College: http://lsr.edu.in/  

For Deen Dayal Upaydhaya College: https://dducollegedu.ac.in/Viewtopics.aspx?MenuId=Dme9y5Da1wl____zRkCVei3Sp6hewZ7UXdgHSyy395ioLY=

For Lady Irwin College: http://www.ladyirwin.edu.in/hostel_admission.aspx

For IP College for Women: http://ipcollege.ac.in/Viewtopics.aspx?Menuid=Hostel_Admissions_1829

For Maharaja Agrasen College (for Girls): http://mac.du.ac.in/pdf/Maharaja%20Agrasen%20College%20hostel%20form.pdf

For Keshav Mahavidyalaya: http://keshav.du.ac.in/Downloads/Hostel/HostelProspectus2018-19.pdf

For Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women: http://rajgurucollege.du.ac.in/cas/hostel.html

 

  1. Admission: Admission into the hostels are purely based on merit. The applicants may get a seat only after they secure a seat in a department of that particular college. A merit list of students who have been granted a seat along with a waiting list is announced on the college website and notice board. Then, the accepted students have to submit the required documents like medical certificates, payment dues as well as local guardian credentials. Some colleges also conduct a round of interviews with the parents, students and the local guardian. It would be useful to check the individual hostel prospectus for further details.
  2. Allocation of rooms: After the formalities of admission are done, the students are allocated rooms. They have to shift to the rooms within a stipulated number of days, failing which their admission will be cancelled. Vacancy of any seat, if any, would be informed in the college website or notice board.

Feature Image Credits: Hindu College website

Sara Sohail

[email protected]

In light of the recent Banaras Hindu University controversy comes to mind the question of moral policing and gender. Different in-times in college hostels for boys and girls show how the administration tries to morally police women. The fear of female autonomy and expression of sexuality is so deep; it makes colleges implement these sexist rules and guidelines in order to curb them.

Seemingly liberal colleges, where conversation around feminism and gender is never lulled, have restrictive hostel timings or a different in-time for boys and girls (not officially but in implementation). The in-time for Daulat Ram College’s hostel is 7:30 PM, for the Miranda House Hostel, is 8:30 PM, for the Rajiv Gandhi hostel for women, is 9:30 PM as is the Hindu College girls hostel. Timings for Men’s hostels are also somewhat similar but the difference is they are never really enforced. The Post-Graduate Men’s (PG Men’s) hostel for instance on its prospectus has an in-time of 10:40 PM but according to sources, the in-time is never followed. Srivedant Kar, a resident of PG Men’s hostel says that while the prospectus reads 10:30 PM, there really isn’t an applicable in-time there. He mentions that the PG Men’s hostel is “open 24*7”. A resident from Rajiv Gandhi Girls Hostel, who would like to stay anonymous, says “The in-time is 10:00 PM and it is strictly implemented”. Hindu College offers hostels to both boys and girls but here is how both are treated differently. According to Muhammad Daniyal Ubaidullah, a student of Hindu College “Boys’ in-time is hardly a reality, as in, it is not enforceable at all. Girls hostel is strictly around 10:30, I think”. Kirori Mal College (KMC) hostel’s in-time is 11:00 PM ( please note-three and a half hours later than DRC, two and a half hours later than Miranda). When I asked an acquaintance living there if the in-time was implemented his reply was “not really”.

Two people from a similar age group are allowed radically different levels of independence. So, if a girl gets back to the Daulat Ram College hostel at 8:00 PM instead of 7:30, she may have to go through disciplinary action, humiliation, and child-like admonishment but if he were a boy living in either the Hindu College boys hostel, KMC boys hostel or PG Men’s hostel, he would have the liberty to walk in as and when he pleased. This system which allows one eighteen-year-old boy to be out all night but expects another eighteen-year-old girl to inside the hostel premises by 7:30 PM sharp is shameful and sexist. It is these kinds of discriminatory laws that infantilise women. It reiterates that women are incapable of taking care of themselves and should be indoors before it gets dark.

The idea of a woman being out at 10:30 PM was apparently so threatening, so unsettling that administration nipped this problem in the bud itself. The radical difference between how boys and girls hostels are treated highlights a deeper problem. The underlying root of this form of strict discipline enforcement is moral policing. This moral policing stems from a) a fear of female independence and b) an attempt to control women and curb their decision-making power. If a university willingly chooses to limit the choices the women studying there can make, we have a problem at our hands.

Here is how these discriminatory timings play a greater role than they seem to have. Every time a girl needs to rush back to meet her 7:30 or 8:30 PM deadline while her male counterparts continue to be out, it reminds her of how societal perception of what girls should do and how they should behave has still not changed. This mould of a “good girl” that’s so aggressively marketed by college administrators, movie makers, and pop culture subconsciously affects us, one that is idolized, glorified, put on a pedestal if reinforced by these ridiculous timings. Those who choose to speak out and rebel are often problematically labelled as “feminazis” (casual usage of the word “Nazi” is insensitive).

Here is another dangerous idea which is behind these ridiculous in-timings, the idea that women will be “unsafe” at night and therefore need to be actively protected and locked indoors. It is this restrictive in-time that stops women from “reclaiming the streets” so to speak. If women won’t be allowed to step out at night, the idea that women are unsafe after dark will only strengthen. That part in Jab We Met where the ticket conductor compares a woman a lone woman to an open box of riches, ready to be ravaged, was not funny then and is not funny now; simply because it hits home. Because I know that isn’t some random dialogue in a random film that will not matter the second I step out of the theatre. That sentence defined and reflected the beliefs of our society at large. The fact that in a place like the University of Delhi, one of the most “woke” institutions in India allowed such outright discriminatory rules to stand and gave men a free pass while caging women shows how little is progress that we have made.

It is imperative that authorities recognise that this form of moral policing does a gross injustice to the young women whose idea of self they are meant to shape and positively influence. Universities across the country need to stop acting like the self-anointed guardians of women. When we don’t question the reasoning behind these chauvinistic rules, we give them legitimacy. Rules that reinforce age-old problematic norms about women, try to constrict their freedom and independence should be actively questioned and fought against.

Image Credits: The Hindu

Kinjal Pandey
[email protected]