Three of The Quint’s journalists went to Delhi University’s North Campus yesterday to ask of-age students questions about sexual consent for our #MakeOutInIndia campaign. Our journalists were stopped by ‘Fortuner mein rawana’ Satender Awana, the ABVP President, who decided that it was his moral duty to ‘protect’ the reputation of all women who were being asked about what constitutes sexual consent.
Urmi Bhattacherya, Esha Paul and Sanjoy Deb were taken to the police, lest they seriously endanger the marriage prospects of DU’s ‘naive’ and ‘eligible’ young women. DU professors Deepika Tandon and Saswati Sengupta, and SHO Arti Sharma came to their rescue. Social media has had plenty to say.
The All India NSUI Secretary came out in support of our journalists, saying that no student body owns the University.
While the response has largely been heartening...
...we’ve also heard some of this:
The ABVP’s reaction to a survey on consent and some of the uglier responses we’ve received on social media are the very reasons we need to be speaking of sex. If people truly believe that a survey on consent constitutes penis sizes and vaginal depth, there is a problem to address and we’ve taken it upon ourselves to address it.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)