Campus Politik

North Bengal university had a complaint committee but nobody knew about it

At the University of North Bengal (NBU), women students have to obey the rules. If they exceed the curfew time of 8 pm in summer and 7.30 pm in winter, the hostel superintendent will initiate proceedings against them. The boys don’t have to meet these stifling curfews in the university, which was established in 1962 and has some 1,500 post-graduate, M. Phil and Ph.D. students on its rolls. The university received an “A” ranking from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council in 2016.

With five girls’ hostels and four boys hostels in campus, the university rule books state curfew for both boys and girls hostels. Though M.Phil and Ph.D. hostels are exempt from these rules, the women scholars enter the hostel as early as possible because of the unsafe environment on campus. Anyone can enter the university since there are no security checks and there have been many cases of sexual harassment by these outsiders.

It was ironic that it took an incident on Independence Day in 2016 to bring female students together. A female PhD scholar was molested inside the campus around 2 pm that day. Since it was a public holiday, the Ph.D. scholar, a science student, had to go to the lab to feed her specimens. While she was returning to the hostel with her friends, a bike-borne man, touched her breast and rode away. There were no guards around to catch the biker.

The protest erupted as many students, including girls and boys, held a dharna at the watch and ward department and stayed there till 2 am. On the following day, the protesting female students were questioned by the hostel superintendent saying, “It is not safe for girls to stay outside till that hour of night.” Even after the students narrated the whole incident, she stood by her words.

What we got to know the next day was enraging and disappointing at the same time: The hostel superintendent had been a member of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). Until that day, no one knew that there is an ICC in the university. This triggered a large movement in the university demanding the implementation of GSCASH. We demanded GSCASH because we wanted gender sensitisation and orientation programmes to be conducted on campus, rather than just a complaint committee like the ICC. But the varsity authority rejected our demand saying that they already have an Internal Complaint Committee in place to handle these cases. They had very little knowledge about the committee and its importance though.

Later, we enquired about the existing ICC and found that not a single election had been held to elect its members. The Ph.D. scholar, whose name was written in the ICC form as student representative, had no idea about the committee and its functioning. She knew that she was a member with certain associations, but not with the ICC. Another ICC representative, a post-graduate student, had already passed out. After a three-week-long battle with the administration, they installed a complaint box in a corner of Arts faculty which can easily go unnoticed.

Almost three days after the earlier incident, a similar incident had occurred with another student just outside the campus gate. While a post-graduate student was returning home after finishing her class, a bike passed by her for about five times. Since the girl was already involved in the campus movement, she became alert and noted down the bike’s number and the colour of that person’s T-shirt. She filed a complaint in the nearby police station and the person was caught by the evening. However, neither the university authority nor the ICC wanted to pay any attention to this case and came with an excuse that the complainant was not a hosteller and the case happened outside the campus.

We have seen men masturbating inside the campus early in the morning. When we complained to the authorities, all they did was put up some barricades so that bikes or cycles would not enter.

Even after a series of sexual harassment incidents and students’ protests, ICC remains inactive. Another incident happened in February this year when a postgraduate student along with her sister was returning to her room around 6 pm when a man on a bicycle groped her. A group of students including myself went to the watch and ward department of the university and called the officer in charge of the nearby police station and requested him to come to the campus. Though they searched the surrounding area with the university guards, the culprit was nowhere to be found. To our surprise, the Vice-Chancellor Somnath Ghosh also came to the spot immediately (perhaps, because the police was involved in the case) and assured that more guards will be deployed during night and CCTV cameras would be installed. We didn’t agree with the idea of CCTV cameras though.

The university authorities are now looking for a Ph.D. scholar to elect her as ICC member as the earlier one has passed out. Still, they have no intention of holding an election and it shows the state of ICC in NBU.

There has always been a confusing narrative when we approach the female students on campus to plan a movement to end the hostel curfews. There are many who want to end it but a majority of them don’t want to go against the authorities. Another thing is that, a majority of the students come from far-flung rural areas of North Bengal where they have family-set curfews which is much before 8 pm. So, having an 8 pm curfew is not that problematic for them.

The university library shuts at 5 pm. There is only one grocery store inside the campus which also closes by 8 pm. Even the canteens shut by 6 or 7 pm. So, whenever, the demand for removing the curfew comes up, the administration counters it with the question, “What will the female students do after 8 pm?”

If you’re a student, professor or an alumnus and want to write/share how your college deals with sexual harassment, the systems to check it or the lack thereof, email us at campus@newslaundry.com