Pinjra Tod has started an online petition that will be submitted to Union Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar urging him to “immediately remove patriarchal and unconstitutional curfew from all women’s hostels”.
Pinjra Tod works to ensure secure, affordable and not gender-discriminatory accommodation for women students across the Capital.
‘Long way to go’
The student group has said that over the past few years, women students across the country have been on the streets demanding removal of discriminatory conditions, caging and policing of their lives.
They added that they have made some headway with institutions like Mumbai University, BITS Pilani and IIT-Roorkee that have done away with curfews. However, Pinjra Tod said, there is still a long way to go.
In the petition, they wrote, “Your own regulations... have declared restriction on women’s mobility unjustified for universities to impose. We state yet again that the humiliating practice of imposing curfews on women students debars us from accessing basic university and social resources.”
They added that curfews are in direct conflict with their autonomy and mobility and is a direct encouragement to those who commit public acts of sexual violence by making it appear as if women do not belong to the public space and must be punished when they venture into it.
CCTV cameras
“We have been stared at enough by these CCTV cameras promising safety. Yet, countless cases of stalking and violence have gone completely unaddressed despite the many CCTV cameras. This attitude of protection has never and will not keep women safe. Women’s safety can only come from women’s liberation and equality.”
