Lets have a look at the links below first if you haven't already:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/kept-away-from-commotion/article5222370.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/kept-away-from-commotion/article5222370.ece
Ok. So much of the hoopla-hooh is going on around the VIT, Vellore campus these days. But what is this all about? You would know if you would have gone through all the links above.
Angry? Dismissive? Your blood boiling of anger and rage? Alumni females, you would agree with this right? How could a university which claims to be number 1 private university in India and aims to compete with the IITs do such a thing? Curbing freedom of speech, gender discrimination, women disrespect. All these words are coming across your mind. Right?
But guys. Hold on. Take a deep breath. This blog’s gonna be long but I guess by the end of it, we all would come to terms with each other. I am writing this blog from a neutral perspective. Being an alumnus of this prestigious institute I think I hold some amount of respect to it. And let’s not forget. It is not the University at fault here and I am sure even you would agree ‘coz most of us have spent at least 3 years of our youth here and we know what importance it holds for us!
So about youth, Robert Kennedy once said:
"This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the life of ease”
True to his words, all of us (at least me, at the time of writing this blog) have that energy, courage and will power to bring about a change in society, in surrounding and in the place of our work and not tolerate the wrong at any cost. And I am sure perhaps this is what these two ladies who were sent back home had in minds when they opted to run an opinion poll to present the fact to the college administration of what ordeal are the girls at VIT are going through. Hats off to them. They really did a great job out there. I mean, look at the numbers. The result of this poll taken by 399 female students speaks of itself about the fuss that the students have to go around daily.
You would have had the whole picture of the how the system works for females in VIT. And yes, for the female students, it is a tough time. I have witnessed it myself and would often make fun of it when I was studying!! It was a regular complaint that one would hear about the 8 o clock deadline, the fuss about the week end plans that would eventually get cancelled because my female friends were not given permission, or plans that we had to cut-short due to the 5 pm deadline during weekends. It got worse after I graduated as I often hear from my juniors. More so, they would often crib about the deadline given to the boys on a Saturday night that was extended from a daily 9.30 pm to 11.30 pm. The misbehavior of one of the top most persons, who would actually go in and sit inside the girl’s host (where even a girl’s father was not allowed) passing lewd comments at the girls who would enter at two minutes after the 8 pm deadline, the restriction on the kind of clothes that they could wear outside the hostel and endless other complaints.
But let me just stick to the issue of restrictions here. You know when anything stops us from doing what we think is right, we tend to abolish and rubbish and protest against it. We want to break the boundaries and go beyond them. And that’s our nature. We just love the adventure.
But how often do we sit back, relax a bit and ponder about “Why that restriction is there after all?” Do we really need it? Is there a better way to that neither restricts us nor defeats the purpose for what that restriction is there for? My new boss describes life to be driven by two factos: 1. Principle and 2. Practice. And how do the two differ from each other? It is simple. Principle is what your objective is. And practice is what you actually do to reach that objective. So, principles are always right. There cannot be any opposition to it. No second doubt. Now how that principle has to be achieved i.e. the Practice can be right or wrong and it is perceptual. And I believe the same goes here as well.
I would start by quoting father of one of my female friend. On being questioned what made him send his daughter to VIT Vellore, despite it being in such a small town, where there was null possibility of having a guardian also. And I will quote him word by word: “I decided on the two main purposes. One, that it is the number one university. Two, I really liked the way they organized the security details of the campus. Though, I am sending my girl off to such a distant place and she has never been outside home before. But sitting thousands of kilometers away, I can am assured that my daughter will be safe though the 4 year tenure of her education”. Though I suspect he didn’t add the third reason: She didn’t get admission elsewhere… (Kidding) So don’t stop reading here. I know you would say, Blah!!! Another supporter of VIT administration. No, I am not a fan of their either. But guys, peace out. Go till the end.
We are educated, well behaved citizens and know our responsibilities, rights and duties. We are open to new ideas, new culture, westernization, we respect other religions. And it is our generation that is doing it at such a huge level. It is like a mass movement where we find ourselves more able and aware than our parents and their generation and trust me, the same would have been the case with them too. The point where I am leading this whole conversation is that yes, crimes and discrimination against women are on the rise. We know it. We are aware of it and we oppose it. So our principle is “Abolish this crime and discrimination”. And to achieve this, what our university practices is ensuring that the female students are safe and sound and it wants to take care of them. Now, there would be somewhere around say a thousand female resident student parents of whom day-in-day-out worry about their well being. More so, due to the greater risks that they now see which ponders on females these days, it gives them even more reasons to be anxious. So to ensure this, the university has implemented some rules and strict procedures because the ultimate responsibility lies with the university itself. Now, just imagine if something happens to any of the student, a guy or girl, it is the university who comes into picture. And let’s agree to this… No university would like a black mark on its name. Be it of any sort. Incidents do not discriminate gender. If it has to happen, it will happen. Putting up such rules is the practice of the university. Managing thousands of students is tough as far as I know they are doing okay with it. Think about the president who moves with a Z++ security. A whole convoy moves with him. He is important and an asset for the country. To protect him is important. He would certainly feel restricted. Restricted to move around, follow a set of rules and procedures. He has to because at the end he needs to be protected. It is like locking your house so that a theft can be avoided. But then if you close your doors and windows as well to avoid any possible opportunity, you will suffocate. And again, principle should be correct; practice may or may not be!
To counter why such rules are implemented only for girls and not for boys, yes the university administration is at fault out there. Perhaps they have got the funda of co-ed education system all wrong. But this is not discrimination. I am sure with leadership like Sekar Vishwanathan, gender discrimination can never hold up in the VIT. Girls have equal opportunities to compete in each and every field as boys, same job opportunities, exactly the same classes and faculty and exact same amount of access to each facility. Nobody wants to jail you, girls. Realize it. It is perhaps the university’s self-defense technique. You can definitely come up with some better out-of-the-box solutions and am sure they will be welcomed. Every student should have the freedom of doing things. But when you are under the umbrella of this university, you are bound to abide by the rules of the college. And rules should be equal for both boys and girls.
Dear readers, I know that restricting the female students is not the correct way of fight against the crimes. It is not an option at all. Empowering them is. Having a mentally correct society is. Having a society which treats women at par with men is. But do you think it will all change in one night? Rapes will stop in a day? Harassment will end just by itself? No it won’t until a stricter punishment is guaranteed to the wrong doer. It will take time. We have come out of dark shades of practices that used to be there at our parent’s time. We have evolved and matured. All of that has happened over time and this will take time too. We need to create awareness, we need gender sensitization. In my perspective, college’s intentions are not wrong, their methods are. VIT has set a wrong example by putting up such strict rules and cubing the voices of the students and sending off the two women students back home for doing the polls.
Maybe VIT should allow students (and that means both boys and girls), to be in campus by certain time and fix an equal hotel entry time for both. I believe the campus in itself is highly secure for a female to safely venture out at night. Maybe women can be taught some self defense techniques, a distress cell of the university, a special cell for crime against female students, a better methodology to track students in and out going. If our university is so much concerned about the security of the students, let it target both segments. And rather than making it a jail for the students, give them a little flexibility, have arrangements to make it a better place to learn. A place where both genders can interact with each other towards a productive future. Make it feasible to arrange to attend seminars and participate in competitions. Let them volunteer for NGOs. Erase all sorts of complications that they have to go through while crossing the university gates.
Before I end this blog, I would like to point out one thing and I hope you all will agree. Our culture and our mindset is arranged by the society we live in. This further affects our actions and opinions. Validity of such actions and opinions can differ from person to person and no one can justify them. To all the current students, you are there in that college for four years. Act responsibly and make those years the golden period of your life; not a time which you would regret later. Act responsibly and who knows, restrictions might just be done away with? Think how your parents would react to your actions. Your new found freedom, away from home is their major concern. But with freedom, comes responsibility. And it is quite often that we have seen the responsibility part being ignored so casually and later repented upon. Turn it into an opportunity to gain their trust and not to shatter their respect. University hostel is your home away from home. And some house rules apply to everyone!
