“Arre madam, le lo parcha.” (Oh madam! Take this pamphlet)
“Arre, hume bhi toh parcha de do.” (Hey, give us the pamphlets too)
These pretty ordinary statements tend to evoke fear among women during the Delhi University Student elections. The reason is the tone in which they are spoken. Before elections, boys from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi are hired to distribute pamphlets. Unfortunately. these boys stand outside metro stations and heckle women.
To avoid this uncomfortable situation, women prefer to stay indoors during elections. It’s not surprising that safety of women or other women issues become the main agenda during the elections. But the reality is completely different.
Pooja*, MA Sanskrit student says that this sort of eve-teasing is a common sight during elections. The men pass lewd comments and it’s best to ignore them. “It is said that these boys are hired and they are stationed at the gates of the girls’ colleges.”
The roads leading to both north and south campus of the university are blocked by vehicles with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh number plates. From Mercedes to Alto, you see them all here. The most fancy and expensive car, will be right in front.
Driving through the crowd, the candidates, wearing a marigold garland, toss the pamphlets, chant party slogans and remind students of their ballot number.
The DUSU elections might just be a student union election but it is a great teaser for the general elections or any state elections. Students are lured in the name of pubs and pool parties so that they can be brought to polling stations.
Richa* from Sri Aurobindo College says, “One of the main agenda of campaigning is women safety but it really doesn’t make any sense when the candidates themselves bring in an army of goons.”
According to Richa, not even one DU student stands and chants these slogans.The ones who do are all hired especially for the election. Why doesn’t the student union candidates check the criminal backgrounds of these people? Why are hooligans allowed to enter the campus for campaigning?
Is There an Internal Complaint Committee?
While ABVP has promised to protect women in their manifesto, NSUI has resolved to make a women-friendly campus. But neither the ABVP nor the NSUI has taken the responsibility or any action against these groups heckling women. When ABVP’s vice president candidate Shakti Singh, was asked this question, his legal advisor Piyush Thakur said that no complaints have come to them. If, in future, they do receive any such complaints then it would be forwarded to the ICC (Internal Complaints Committee).
The ICC has been formed under UGC’s 2015 guidelines to prevent sexual violence against women in higher education. It has been formed for college students.
Does this committee also hear the complaints of school students called in for campaigning? On this, Piyush Thankur denied any school children participating in the union election.
Probing this further, I spoke to some girls wearing t-shirts with Shakti Singh’s name printed on it. When asked further, the girls admitted they are paid Rs 400 a day for distributing pamphlets. They work from 8 am to 5 pm.
19-year-old Varsha comes from Shahdra. She would use the money earned to buy new clothes for college. Her father works as a painter. The girls are usually from economically weaker section. If anyone misbehaves with them, they tend to ignore it. They believe that if they complain to the police, they might be told that the responsibility of harassment lies with them since they came to the place on their own.
A law faculty student campaigning for ABVP said that ICC installing a complaint box doesn’t solve any problem. This committee is just on paper. ABVP will ensure that the women’s complaints are heard. For this, they have demanded a woman guard for every college. They have also raised the issue of installing lights in the dark spots of the campus area to ensure that women stepping out at night feel safe.
Mohit Bhaskar of INSO said that for the past three years only his party has been fielding a woman candidate for the President’s post.
In the previous DUSU elections, women have been lured for votes by distributing makeup accessories etc. For the men, it’s alcohol.
Women Presidents Are Stalked & Catcalled
DU AISA President Kavalpreet Kaur said she has previously faced physical harassment during election campaigns, including heckling and catcalling.
Last year, Kavalpreet was stalked around the campus. In January this year when she was invited for a seminar on online violence at Satyawati College, some members of ABVP again made similar attempts. Two ABVP members were even suspended over the incident.
Kavalpreet also said that if the president of a party is harassed, imagine what would others be going through.
Why do women stop stepping out of their homes?
Shweta, a student at IP College, told us how she faced eve-teasing during the election two years back. In the evening, when she used to return to her PG from tuitions at Nirankari Colony. Cars filled with men would pass remarks. Out of fear she changed the timing for her tuitions.
Harassment is not just faced by students but also by women professors.
DU's campus is open and there are no arrangements to prevent outsiders from entering the campus. People living in the residential areas around it also have to face these hooligans.
(* Name changed to protect the identity.)
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