‘Unwanted restrictions on women hit academic progress’

A personal experience forced Bhargavi to initiate this survey. “When I was attending a cultural event at Sastra University, I was told to go back to the hostel by 6.30 pm, while the male students had no such restrictions. This made me furious and I posted about it on Facebook. Vandana got in touch with me. We decided to do something about it and started an online form, where female students can give us their experiences,” she said, adding that some of the responses were shocking. 

“We have reports from people saying that they were body shamed by the wardens for wearing shorts in their rooms inside the hostel while others said they weren’t allowed to step out of campus,” she added. Vandana said what started off as an attempt to tackle curtailing of autonomy had much larger implications. “The responses suggested that these curfews on female students hampered their academic progress. It also led many people to feel caged, which also led to depression. Most institutions say that parents of students want these rules but we have found that doing away with these curfews have not caused any untoward accidents. We have sent our report to all the colleges across Tamil Nadu. We want equal curfews for both male and female students,” she stressed. A student from SRM University said, “Boys often go to the library to study till late at night, and hence they have an advantage over us for studies. Once I signed up for a workshop that continued till 8 at night, and getting permission for it was such a hassle. It is more difficult for us to take part in extra-curricular activities because of this.” 

The report also had positive examples of institutions that have successfully done away with these archaic curfews. Jane Pauline, a student of the Tamil Nadu National Law School, responded, “At the Tamil Nadu National Law School, the girls had an earlier curfew. We fought for a year and in January 2016, the unequal curfew was lifted. All students had a curfew of 10 pm. After lifting the curfew, there have been no incidents violating women’s safety. The students are now content that this has paved a way for a healthy academic environment fostering free thinking.”