Girls Hit Out Against Double Standards in College Hostels

Students of Jamia Millia Islamia speak to The Quint about how new hostel rules are biased against female students.

Students at Jamia Millia Islamia university in Delhi are not pleased with the administration. Strengthening already discriminatory hostel rules, female residents of the Jamia hostel have been informed that they are no longer allowed late nights – staying out till 10 pm – in their “own best interest”.

Here’s how some students reacted to the new rules.

“Boys can come and go as they please, but for us there are restrictions piled on restrictions,” says one female student, who wanted to remain anonymous because she feared that she would lose her hostel room if she spoke out against the university administration.

Like most other universities, Jamia places restrictions on female students that it does not on men. Girls have to be in their rooms by 8 pm, and need their local guardian’s permission to stay out late twice a month. Now, even that privilege has been taken away, citing safety concerns.

This talk of “safety, best interests and security” is completely hypocritical. We are all adults, and have never asked the university to protect us. Besides, the university made our parents sign a document that says that the university bears no responsibility for our safety when we are off campus. So why feign concern now?
— Hostel Resident, Jamia Millia Islamia

Students, both male and female, are unhappy about these restrictions.

Jamia is Not Alone

Hostels at various universities in Delhi and across the country have the same double standards. While male students are treated as the adults they are, the same courtesy is not extended to their female counterparts.

At Miranda House college in Delhi, girls have to be in their rooms by 8:30 pm and late nights are restricted. Similar rules apply in the capital’s St. Stephen’s College residence for girls.

“Rules like these are used to exercise favouritism and power by university authorities,” says Isha Purkayastha, a recent graduate from Delhi University.

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