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The Human Resource Development Cell of Shri Ram College of Commerce organized a two-day extravaganza, The Sri Ram Red Bricks Summit  and it’s annual fest Minductor 11.0  on 27th and 28th March 2023. The second day witnessed a star-studded line of speakers namely Mrs Ghazal Alagh and Mr Varun Alagh along with entertainers like singer Abeer Chopra.

The second day started at 9 am in the morning with an enlightening interview of the founders
of Mamaearth, Mrs. Ghazal Alagh and Mr. Varun Alagh hosted by RJ Vidit from 98.3 FM.
The couple shared their collaborative journey of founding Mamaearth in 2016, as a dream
company to help people take care of their children and others, their USP being- chemical free
products. This interview gave the audience important insights into the inception of any new
venture and the possible marketing strategies that could come in handy.

The day proceeded with soulful renditions of songs by the sensational singer and Instagram
personality, Abeer Chopra. The audience experienced a mesmerizing performance, starting
with pop songs and ending with the heart-rending vocals of Anuv Jain.

“I had an amazing experience performing at SRCC. The arrangements were great and
the crowd was wonderful which motivated me to perform better. It was my pleasure to perform at this stage and I would love to come here for more such events”, noted the singer.

The event also featured many innovative competitions within its ambit, involving the
intellectual as well as creative capacities of the students. Competitions such as BuZZinGear,
HRVerse, and Buyer’s Battle were organized by the society which witnessed participation from
different colleges. Buyer’s battle was  a competition structured on the model of IPL Auctions, where teams had to buy players and each team was given a budget of Rs. 50 crore. Similarly, the HRVerse
competition tested the HR skills of the students and how to manage and connect with new
people Muskan Jain,  the event head from the organizing team of Buyer’s Battle recounted,

“Organizing this event was both exciting and challenging. This is the first time I have organized an offline event and I feel that all the tiring hours of hard work and discussions over Google meets and conference calls were worth it”.

The event saw a good footfall from various colleges, and with this, the two-day event
organized by the Human Resource Development Cell came to a successful end.

Samra Iqbal
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Image Credits: DUBeat 

Also Read: Shree Ram Red Bricks Summit and Minductor 11.0 : Day 1

The Human Resource Development Cell of Shri Ram College of Commerce hosted the 11th edition of its annual fest Minductor 11.0 and the Shri Ram Red Bricks Summit on 27th and 28th March, 2023. It was a two-day cultural extravaganza including insightful panel discussions, seven exciting competitions, and a foot-tapping musical concert, all of which celebrated the richness of human capital.

Day one of Minductor 11.0 kicked off with an electric and show-stopping dance performance by V-Defyn Dance Society of IIT Delhi. This was followed by a panel discussion on Amrit Kaal: Forging India’s Prosperous Future. The panelists included Mr. Dhruv Sharma, Founder of Social Canvass Consulting, Mr. Sharad Sagar, CEO of Dexterity Group, and Mr. Falit Sijariya, Y20 representative. The lively discussion revolved around the future of Indian education to meet global standards and diverse work opportunities for the youth to create meaningful impact.

To lighten the academic mood post the panel discussion, stand-up comedian Gourav Mahna brought tears of laughter to an enthralled audience. The day also marked the on-campus finale rounds of three exciting events – Quandrum, a National Case Study Competition; Innerve and Binge Maniacs all of which encouraged participants to think on their feet and provide out-of-the-box solutions.

The afternoon marked another Panel Discussion on The Impact of Unconscious Bias and tackled themes on socio-economic inclusion and the relevance of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity) in HR.
The speakers Dr. Radhika Batra, Founder of Every Infant Matters and Ms. Aditi Arora, Country Director of GirlUp UN along with moderator Anurag Kashyap, tactfully conversed with the audience about the various sensitive motions. Monday wrapped up with a lively concert by Taranbeer which
had the student body grooving to both old Bollywood classics and modern tunes.

Bhavya Nayak
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Image Credits: DUBeat

Students pursuing B.Com (Honours) express their grievances as the results of the first-semester examinations leave students dissatisfied.

On 12th May 2020, results of the first-semester B.Com (Hons.) were declared. However, there were surfacing concerns regarding discrepancies in the same. Students have put forth the issue of disproportionate results i.e. the marks obtained in practicals and internal assignments not corresponding to the results of the odd semester examinations.

“I believe that my classmates have been marked incorrectly. For someone who scores eleven out of twenty-five in internals, getting a score of nine or ten in the core paper seems to be uncanny,” says a first-year student who responded on the condition of anonymity. The Varsity’s faulty evaluation has repeatedly been a cause of concern to students with respect to their results.

“Our seniors were not surprised when we told them about the discrepancies, this shows how deep-rooted and normalised this problem is,” says a student pursuing B.Com (Hons.) who wished to remain anonymous.

“The results have mostly been fine. Other than a few minor discrepancies in some subjects, the only major cause of concern has been the Microeconomics GE (Generic Elective) paper. Some students feel that the marking has been outrightly random. Students with perfect scores in internals and a well-written test have been marked far below their expectations,” says a first-year student pursuing B.Com. (Hons.)  from Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC).

Moreover, the issue of revaluation also stands as an inconvenience amidst the contemporary COVID-19 pandemic. With shops closed, attaining photostats becomes a tedious task. Along with the technical constraints, the revaluation and rechecking procedures emerge as faulty systems as students often claim that the Varsity gathers revenue from its own faults.

The recurring glitches in the results along with the University’s proposal of conducting online examinations have been a worrying matter to the students of Delhi University.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Priyanshi Banerjee
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The third and final day of Business Conclave at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) concluded with inspiring sessions by Mr Gautam Gambhir, Ms Prajakta Koli, Mr Kapil Sibal, and a fun session with entertainer Mr Kapil Sharma.

The first session of the final day of Business Conclave 2020, commenced with Mr Bhargav Sri Prakash, Former National Tennis player, Inventor of Digital Vaccine, and CEO of FriendsLearn. Sri Prakash talked about his journey of how he started as a student of Mechanical Engineering in Chennai. He went on and talked about his obsession with race cars. Sri Prakash emphasized on the importance of Ayurveda and told the audience about how Indian Ayurveda has treatment for illness but no prevention, so he discovered Digital Vaccine. Later on, he enlightened the crowd at SRCC about his project in India which is the 1st in the World that serves underprivileged children in Chennai. Mr Bhargav is also a health enthusiast, he said “India should do justice to its potential.” As according to him, the evolution of India has been limited to Outsourcing.  Sri Prakash ended the session by making a plea to the students to come together and take on the big problems around us.

Padma Shree Awardee, Gautam Gambhir, covered various topics, ranging from politics to self-motivation, while talking candidly at the Business Conclave, organised by the Students’ Union, Shri Ram College of Commerce. The ex-cricketer, talked with great responsibility while covering BJP’s defeat in the latest Delhi Assembly Elections. He said, “It is not my job to only cater to my constituency, but to the 70 constituencies, that we contested for.” In the conversation on politics, he said, “Never thank a politician”, stating how development is each politician’s job and they shouldn’t be thanked for it. He even mentioned the Ghazipur Landfille issue to be solved, irrespective of his fate at the Elections. The audience was inspired by his cricket analogy implementation in the field of politics and the ups and downs of life.

Kapil Sharma, one of the leading names in Television Comedy, had the auditorium packed for his panel with Youtuber and SRCC Student, Karan Chawla at the last day of the Business Conclave, organised by the students’ union of SRCC. Kapil Sharma, shed light on the writing process of the show and stated, how the narrative of the show is observational comedy. Being in SRCC, he reminisced his own college days in Amritsar and the college theatre he did, that led to him being comfortable with stage and the overall idea of the show. The panel had a seemingly interesting end, with him inviting beatboxing, cajon playing students at the stage and jamming with them on a rap song.

Following Kapil Sharma’s hilarious yet heartwarming presence, the audience was greeted by the well-renowned YouTuber and content creator, Prajakta Koli. Due to the absence of certain speakers, Prajakta’s arrival seemed like a bit of a delay to the ardent audience. She started by talking about modeling her career from being a radio intern to trying her hands on content creation and becoming one of India’s most popular YouTuber. She further discussed the many landmarks in her career like collaborating with Canadian YouTuber, Lily Singh, and having tea with former First Lady, Michelle Obama. After addressing issues like nepotism and YouTube censorship, she interacted with the audience, guiding the aspiring YouTubers and enacting her character, Montu for her fans. Sabrawal sisters, the youngest designer and writer, also presented their beloved artist with their books.

Entrepreneur and social activist Ajay Gupta motivated the students with his inspiring words. Narrating his life story, Mr.Gupta told the audience about how polio effected his lifestyle and career. He emphasised on the fact that positive thinking and an optimistic approach towards life can help a person alot. He highlighted the shortcomings of India as a disabled-friendly country and how he has worked towards making India more accessible via his disabled-friendly Ridhihood University. “I feel privileged because of my Bachpan and Academy Heights network of schools. The network is of 120 schools and provides education to more than 35,000 children”, said the founder of the ‘Hum Honge Kamyab’ foundation. The speaker told the students about the importance of being flexible in life and concluded with the famous military war cry, “Josh is high, very high.”

The day and the conclave culminated with senior INC politician and MP, Kapil Sibal. He spoke unreservedly about his past and how did his family settle in India after the partition. Speaking about the diversity and heterogeneity of India, Mr. Sibal said, “Unification of India comes not through diktat but will come through emotion.” He then moved onto the economical and social demographics of India. Mentioning the importance of youth, he emphasised on the shortcomings of the education system and significance of the freedom of students. Taking a jibe at the central government he added, “You don’t have to say ‘Jai Shree Ram’ to be a good student.” While highlighting the importance of dissent in a democracy, he accused the NDA government  of trying to ‘hijack’ university campuses. Ending his speech, the Rajya Sabha member, said, “The country deserves better leaders, better (university) vice chancellors and better citizens.”

Feature Image Credits: Surbhit Rastogi for DU Beat

Aniket Singh Chauhan

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Chhavi Bahmba

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Avni Dhawan

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Aditi Gutgutia

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The second day at Shri Ram College of Commerce’s Business Conclave garnered the attention of many with its stunning lineup and enlightening discussions. 

Day 2 of Business Conclave 2020, organized by the Students’ Union of Shri Ram College of Commerce kick started with a session by Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Cabinet Minister of Law Justice. Speaking of Digital India, he explained how digital literacy and electronic payments can empower the rural sectors. He emphasized on the importance of new areas of growth like machine learning and artificial intelligence and the leverage given for development in education and healthcare sectors. During the interactive session with the students, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad discussed cyber security and issues of privacy, money allocation in the judiciary, all India law examinations and initiatives for rural women outreach. He encouraged students to work and learn beyond their comfort zones since there is no substitute for field experience.

The event proceeded with a panel, moderated by Rishabh Shroff, co head and partner Cyril Amarchand Mangal days. Renowned entrepreneurs and businessmen such as Ankit Mehrotra, CEO dineout, Ashneer Grover, CEO and Co-founder Bharat pe, Anchit Nayar, CEO Nykaa and Deepit Purkayastha, Co founder Inshorts formed the part of the panel. Throwing light on the growing startup industry in India the leading businessmen enlightened the youth about the requirements and prerequisites for establishing an industry and start up. This was followed by a Q and A round in which the panel took immense pleasure in answering the queries of the students.

Social activist and eminent thinker, Sunil Ambedkar spoke candidly about the future of students with respect to new India, idea of dissent and his pro stance on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Registration of Citizens (NRC) among few other things, with senior journalist Rashmi Das.
The major takeaways from his dialogues were his support for small service businesses and inclusion of rural India in making the nation into an economic power. He said,”I went to Guwahati where a person made traditional outfits for which he was critiqued, but his pieces are what constitute the majority of Bollywood movies like Bahubali.”
His leaning for inclusions were in contradiction with his assertive stance of CAA and NRC.

Finally, the showdown was met by the eagerly awaited stand up comedy king, Aakash Gupta who took the students to a brief account of a Delhi life. He was welcomed amidst cheers, laughter and security. His witty and sarcastic jokes along with the funny imitations of the different ways in which the people sneeze and laugh left the crowd with aching stomachs. The entire day was a huge success which not only left the students with a better knowledge about e commerce, startup industry and business development but also took good care of their needs of humor and entertainment.

The event proceeded with a panel, moderated by Rishabh Shroff, co head and partner Cyril Amarchand Mangal days. Renowned entrepreneurs and businessmen such as Ankit Mehrotra, CEO dineout, Ashneer Grover, CEO and co founder Bharat pe, Anchit Nayar, CEO Nykaa and Deepit Purkayastha, Co founder Inshorts formed the part of the panel. Throwing light on the growing startup industry in India the leading businessmen enlightened the youth about the requirements and prerequisites for establishing an industry and start up. This was followed by a Q and A round in which the panel took immense pleasure in answering the queries of the students.

Milind Kamble, the Chairman of the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) talked about his contribution to the upliftment of Dalits. He has been honoured with Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian honour in 2013. He started with a discussion on his personal life and talked about the reasons why he chose to become an entrepreneur and ‘a job giver, not a job seeker’. He also took a moment to talk about his brand Le Dharavi which opened the discussion on employment generation being the need of the hour. He also shared his personal experiences of discussions with a vegetable vendor and other vendors on the issue of employment and mentioned the employment generation by new start-ups like Oyo, Swiggy, Zomato, and others. He also appealed to the students to join financial services and called India a ‘Young Country’ and went on to say that India will remain young even when countries like Japan, UK, USA grow old.

 

Featured Image Credits: Sarthak Singhal

Priya Chauhan 

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Kriti Gupta

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Aishwaryaa Kunwar

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The SRCC Administration cancels North East Cell’s panel discussion on the grounds of misinformation and violence mere hours before the event.

On 23 January 2020, the North-East cell of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) was going to conduct a panel discussion on “Why the North-East is Protesting,” where the cell wanted to create awareness about the ongoing protests in the North-East against Citizenship (Amendment) Act. However, after concerns of violence, the administration canceled the event a mere few hours before.

The speakers invited were academic scholars and journalists, among which two were faculties of the University itself. Apparently, the administration convened an emergency meeting and without any prior information to the organisers of the Program and the Heads of the Cell, called off the Program.

The statement released by the North-East Cell says, “The event scheduled to take place today, organised by the North-East cell SRCC stands cancelled by the administration.  In an emergency meeting held mere hours before the event, the Administration and Dr.  Simrit Kaur, the Principal, informed us that the event is cancelled due to unavoidable circumstances. We were told that they received information about the possibility of violence on campus, if the event was to take place. We were also told that there was no balance in our panel and all our speakers had the ‘same bent of mind’.”

 

“They also suggested this event be conducted at a later time and said it was unwise to have the event in this climate. We insisted that this was not a politically motivated event and that it was conducted because there exists a complete lack of awareness about the North-East protests in the College. This discussion was the need of the hour which garnered immense support and we were expecting a large crowd of students all over the campus.” adds the statement.

In the letter by the Students’ Union to the Principal of the College, the Union cites ‘violence and misleading information’ as the main reason for the cancellation of the event.

The Letter sent by the Students’ Union said, “The North-East society of SRCC is conducting a seminar on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act today (23.1.2020) in room no:2. This seminar is based on a one-sided ideology on the CAA act which may indulge violence and misleading information among the students. Furthermore, the Government has already circulated to educational institutions regarding spreading awareness about the facts and right information about CAA. Being a responsible institution, SRCC must not accept this seminar which is against the norms of social welfare. So, the (The Students Union) considering the interest of the majority, request you to cancel the permission to host the seminar. If this request of ours is subject to cancellation, we request you to grant permission to our seminar which will include the same kind of one-sided ideologies. Taking into consideration the benefits and well-being of everyone involved, we request you to take a favourable decision.”

However, as alleged by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) in their statement, two days before the scheduled event, under the influence of threat of violence from Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the Students’ Union and the Administration pressurised the organisers to call off the event.

As told by a student to The Wire, the students attending the event also received calls from the Students’ Union to discourage the students from attending the protest.

The North-East Cell expressed their disappointment in the message circulated by the Students’ Union and said it was disrespectful towards the speakers.

“Our speakers have years of experience and research to back any statement they make, and the Union didn’t have an issue blatantly attacking their credibility. We would also like to point out that the speakers were informed by the Administration that the event is cancelled due to a technical issue,” adds the statement.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Satviki Sanjay

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The Staff Association of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) protested against the circular which directed colleges to appoint guest teachers against full time vacancies.

The Staff Association of the University of Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce held a protest against a circular dated 28th August 2019 issued by the Assistant Registrar of the University which directs the appointment of guest teachers against full time vacancies.

On the appeal of the SRCC Staff Association, students joined the teachers in large numbers outside the college and they marched towards the Vice Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi’s office to submit a memorandum.

“Guest teachers are paid on per lecture basis only for lectures held and that too subject to a ceiling on payment / number of lectures in a week. This is unjust for young talent aspiring to become a teacher and shows a lack of concern for teaching-learning”, the staff association said.

They further added that the circular “is unmindful of the co-curricular and extra-curricular activities as well as various institutional activities in which full-time teachers participate.”

Calling the circular “unwarranted”, they further highlighted how it has caused uncertainty and distress among different colleges due to varied interpretations.

The Varsity had been filling the vacancies using ad-hoc teachers currently who are given fixed monthly stipends and are hired on a four months contractual basis. Most of these teachers are working for over a decade and are awaiting permanent recruitment as they are currently not entitled to the benefits of permanent faculty members.

Elaborating upon the uncertainty looming over these ad-hoc teachers, the statement said that “uncertainty exists as to whether or not the existing teachers working in ad-hoc will be renews in the same capacity in a few days time when the term of their current appointment ends.”

The Staff Association of Ramjas College extended their support to the SRCC Staff Association and said, “Ramjas College has perhaps the largest number of non-permanent teachers, some of them working for more than 10-15 years. We share your pain and imminent fear.”

WhatsApp Image 2019-11-09 at 9.58.29 PM
Image Credits: Ramjas Staff Association       Image Caption: The Ramjas Staff Association release a Press Release in solidarity with the SRCC protest.

The memorandum was submitted to the Proctor, University of Delhi as the VC was unable to meet the college’s representative. The proctor assured the protesting teachers that the existing ad-hocs will not be replaced.

 

Feature image Credits: SRCC Staff Association

Shreya Agrawal

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The Human Resource Development Cell of Shri Ram College of Commerce organised its annual event, HR Connect on 7th and 8th November 2019 with a plethora of activities lined up which witnessed amazing participation.

HR Connect: Connecting Perceptions,  organised by Human Resource Development Cell of SRCC kicked off its two-day event studded with diverse speaker sessions and various competitions. The drizzly weather conditions caused a slight delay however, the enthusiasm of participants was intact.

The first event for the day started with the Master Plan Accelerator competition where students from different colleges competed to pitch in their business plan to win the Master Plan challenge. Some of the teams that presented their ‘ Master Plan’ included project Dhreya from Enactus, Miranda House which aims at efficient usage of crop wastage by making biomass briquettes. Other teams included Project  Asbah, dealing with making clean drinking water accessible from SRCC. The competition was judged by Ashish Kila, Director Perfect group and Shailendra Mishra, CEO,  Design Cut. Project Asbah, from SRCC, emerged as the winner of the competition and Team Book a Plant  from Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce was the first runner up.

The second event of the day was ‘Fusion Et Encheres’ which started off with a bit of a delay. A scattered room and enthusiastic bidders waited for the screen to flash the names of the companies up for grabs! The first round was bidding round, followed by the second round of inter-trading. The participants were in for a slight twist with the introduction of a previously undeclared casino changing the entire game plan.

Day 2 of HR connect at SRCC began with a speaker session. The first speaker is Mr.Samish Dalal,  an associate professor at SP Jain School of Global Management , who spoke about HR and entrepreneurship stating that “HR and entrepreneurship are very good friends”.  What was a very passionate speech about the importance of taking the jump in business and failure. He was able to catch the attention of the audience by giving real life examples such as that of sky diving  and linking them to business.

The second speaker was S Suresh, the managing director of E.I.D Parry Ltd. One of the leading sugar manufacturers in India.  Some of the topics he enlightens us about is self worth, industry expectations, and human Resources. Industry expectations and the expectations students joining the corporate sector have from their organisation forms a very important part of HR. He also spoke about the importance of getting feedback, saying that people believe that when they “start earning, learning stops”. He elucidated on how this is not the case and how important it is to continue practical learning while working through feedback.

The third speaker session was presided by Mr. Shyam Paliwal, the Head of operational effectiveness at Pfizer. He is also the director of  Valuevault consulting, a company which he launched in 2016.

He spoke on how to chase down our goals from the undergraduate level and the next “5-8″years. How to build a trajectory to become financially independent . He stressed on the importance of people skills and social skills while working professionally.  Another theme in his session was the importance of connectivity, stressing how we lived in a “connected world”. He stressed the importance of college in character building, how college can help improve our adaptability through extra curricular activities

Ankit Aggarwal, CEO and Founder of Dare2compete was the fourth speaker of the day who started his talked with an interesting topic of ‘Resume of deviations’.

“Grab all the opportunities that come to you”, said Aggarwal as he elaborated upon the chances he missed. From his first start-up which didn’t take off to the regret of turning down an important position in Deloitte, he encouraged students to make their own resume of mistakes and learn from the same. He also shared his journey of starting Dare2compete and its success making it a leading platform in India for competitions. He concluded by emphasizing on the importance of maintaining connections and building a personal brand.

Del-a-mark was a marketing based event held on Day 2. With the tagline “How you deliver your marketing skills” the event tested the marketing aptitude of its participants by giving them a company and asking to devise a marketing strategy for it.

The prelims were based on digital marketing, with emphasis on Social media. After careful scrutiny of their marketing plans, out of the 43 teams that applied, 17 were called for prelims and 3 were chosen to deliver their marketing strategies at finals held at HR connect.

The final three teams were :

  1. Team SRites, which had students of Shri Ram College of commerce
  2. Team Marverik, a cross college team of Daulat Ram College and Shri Ram College of commerce
  3. Team Anonymous, with students of Shri Ram College of commerce

The entire event was judged by Mr. Sudhanshu Yadav, Associate Professor, SRCC. All the teams were given 15 minutes to present their self-designed marketing strategies followed by a question and answer session. Team Anoymous from SRCC won the event.

Feature Image Credits: Navya Jindal for DU Beat

Prabhanu Kumar Das

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Chhavi Bahmba

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Shreya Agrawal

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Avni Dhawan

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Anandi Sen

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Sriya Rane

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The woman who was reported to have conducted a series of thefts from Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) was arrested by the police on 2nd October.

A 34-year-old woman hailing from Nagpur, Maharashtra was arrested three weeks after the case of theft was reported from SRCC.

During the questioning she revealed that she had conducted similar thefts across colleges in metropolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai as she “liked doing them”.

As per a senior police officer’s statement from The Indian Express, her arrest was made on 2nd October when she created commotion outside a hostel in Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi wherein she was denied entry by the guards. The issue escalated to an extent that a PCR call was made. Her actions were aggressive and unstable, observing which she was referred to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS).

It was during her time at IHBAS that the police realised she was the same person responsible for the theft at SRCC and thus the police arrested her once she was released from IHBAS.

The woman had allegedly come inside the hostel rooms and stolen cash worth INR 3,000 and credit cards from which according to the police, transactions worth INR 50,000 were done.

The case was registered at the Maurice Nagar police station in North Delhi. According to the police, she was visiting Delhi and when she ran out of money, she went on to conduct the thefts at SRCC.

This case brought to light matter related to the safety of women in hostels. students from all parts of the country reside in the hostels as they complete their education, and such an incident poses a serious threat to their safety.

Prachi Nirwan, a second-year student from Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, said, “Security is an issue which must be taken seriously be it girls’ hostels or boys’ hostel for that matter. Greater measures should be taken if a person entering the hostel is an outsider with proper background check and registration. There should be strict vigilance because hostel is a home away from home for the students who come to Delhi. They need to have this feeling that it (hostel) is a safe space for them.”

Feature Image Credits: Hitesh Kalra for DU Beat

Amrashree Mishra

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On 12th September, while the University of Delhi (DU) was getting ready to elect their new Students’ Union, the Shri Ram Memorial Girls’ Hostel was trespassed into by a stranger who went on to steal money and debit cards from the rooms.

The incident came into light when a first-year student realised that her debit card had gone missing. Subsequently, she received messages informing her that an amount of INR 50,000 had already been withdrawn from her account. In addition to this, a cash amount of INR 2000 was missing from her room and her roommate also lost an amount of INR 1000. A resident from another room also reported her debit card to be missing.

When the residents realised the gravity of the theft, the warden was approached on the 12th itself for permission to access the CCTV footage. However, neither the warden nor the assistant warden approached the students until two days after the theft on 14th September.

The footage showed a stranger entering the hostel at 1:40 p.m. which falls within the lunch hour for the residents. The stranger is said to have confidently walked past the guard stationed at the gate and into the hostel. They then checked every room on the ground floor of the hostel and finally, on finding an empty room, went in and stole students’ belongings. A few students noticed the stranger in the hallway but didn’t find cause to worry as they did not seem lost. They assumed it was a relative of the warden or someone who was let in with permission due to their confidence.

A student also remembers walking into the washroom to find the stranger there. They behaved very casually and mentioned that they would be out in a minute. The stranger then walked upstairs to the first floor and followed the same process of entering all the rooms, possibly looking for something else to steal. Finally, only when the stranger was leaving the hostel did the guard notice them. When questioned by the guard, the stranger quickly ran out of the gate. The guard did not follow the stranger despite the incriminating run and did not make any effort to alert the students or the warden’s office of what he had seen.

Although the stranger was dressed as a woman, the students were subsequently informed that the stranger had previously allegedly entered the college three times. A worker in the college canteen mentioned that he had noticed a similar-looking man.

On viewing the footage, a third-year student claims to have seen the stranger enter the college premises with a campaigning group for the Delhi University Students’ Union elections.

IMG-20190914-WA0029

Reaction of the authorities:

The guard on duty, when confronted regarding the incident, apologised and mentioned that he was asleep when the stranger entered the hostel. It is also important to mention that the two male guards appointed as security in the hostel do not belong to a formal security service.

When the local guardian of the aggrieved student approached the warden’s office, he was informed that the college would file a First Information Report (FIR) on Monday, four days after the theft. The Principal also assured the students’ parents that required actions would be taken. The only step taken to reassure the students regarding their safety was a meeting where the warden reminded the students to be responsible for their belongings. She also requested the third-year students to pacify the juniors and try to contain their fear related to the incident. “This was an accident. It’s a simple matter, no need to worry,” she added.

The incident has not been reported to a higher authority and no immediate changes have been pursued to make the hostel safer for the female students.

Impending fear among the students

The ease with which a complete stranger could enter their private space has shocked all of the residents of the hostel. There is a growing concern that the security currently present is not effective enough. “It is very shocking to acknowledge the fact that a college hostel with two security filters witnessed such an incident. The hostel is supposed to be one of the safest and most secure places in the campus and most of us are afraid to roam around freely in this building now,” a senior student said. The students are additionally very disheartened with the reaction of the hostel authorities, “Safety for the girls here is just limited to locking us within the hostel at 8:30 p.m. Rest anything else is considered to be an “accident” or an “issue being created unnecessarily.” If this is the condition of the hyped premium hostel of an equally hyped institute then I dread the future of women safety.”

The students have since been organising meetings within themselves so they can suggest constructive measures for their safety to the administration. However, they doubt whether the administration will take this matter seriously.

The SRCC Girls Hostel has been plagued with problems and arbitrary decision making since the beginning of the year. To accommodate the increase of student intake due to the Economically Weaker Section quota, the college turned their hostel dining hall into two classrooms without providing them with another alternative. The girls temporarily make use of one of the rooms for meals but due to lack of space, it gets extremely crowded and some of them do not get a seat during the meals.  The administration has not specified when they intend to make an eating space available for the residents.

This absolute ignorance on the part of the administration is grossly unjustified. The girls hostel of SRCC is deeply problematic, housing half the number of students as compared to the boys hostel. I’m addition to this, students lack proper dining facilities. As if this weren’t enough, they now have to worry about their safety living inside the campus. The purpose of such a hostel then comes to question as it fails to provide all of the necessary services.

 

Feature Image Credits: Shri Ram College of Commerce

 

Pragati Thapa

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