Concerned about security in Pgs and hostels, women turn to apps

Earlier this month, the owner of a women’s hostel was arrested for installing spy cameras hidden in various discreet parts of the rooms.

He was caught when a new hostel inmate, concerned about her privacy, went around checking the rooms with an app designed to find hidden cameras.

In another incident, an employee of SRM University was caught masturbating in front of a female student on campus. These incidents have brought to the fore questions about exactly how such instances must be dealt with, as a deterrent to anyone who intends to harm women or violate their privacy and the role of technology in it.

Namita Arora, who works as a data scientist in the city, said, “I was told that searching for hostels or shared apartments on social media would be a safer option than having to deal with brokers. What a terrible mistake that was. Within minutes of me posting on a couple of Facebook groups, I was spammed with messages from many men posing to be house-owners. Some propositioned me openly, while others said I could stay with them free of charge if I compromised to their demands.”

It took her ages to navigate through this, and finally find a place via word-of-mouth. “But then, I started getting calls from brokers, or men pretending to be brokers. they first tried to persuade me and then began to threaten me. I had to block their calls, file a complaint, and finally change my number,” said Namita.

For many years, the Pinjra Tod campaign (a women’s collective of students and alumni) in colleges across India has sought to make hostels in educational institutions a safe, less regressive and equitable space for women. In most colleges girls have an earlier curfew than boys. In some cases, boys do not have to adhere to a curfew at all. Private hostels and paying guest accommodations too have curfews for women, mostly between 9 pm and 10 pm. For many women, working late or simply wanting a night out, such curfews put them in unsafe situations as they have to consider finding an alternative accomodation for the night.

Discriminatory curfew culture puts more women in harm than it seeks to protect. Safety cannot be a guarantee in such hostels, many of which remain outside the purview of the law. Most hostels are unregistered and do not comply with the regulations laid down in the Tamil Nadu Hostel for Women and Children (Regulation) Rules, 2015. There are no CCTV cameras, visitor logs and mandatory minimum space allocation per head.

G Struthi, a student from Vellore Institute of Technology, said, “The one feature we all constantly use is WhatsApp’s Live Location. Be it travelling someplace or if we are alone and feel we are in danger, we immediately share it with our friends and ask them to keep an eye on it. Knowing some self-defence techniques and being really vocal at times goes a long way towards eliminating some of our concerns. Most essential of all though, is finding an open-minded house owner and neighbourhood.”

The existing situation shifts the onus on the women to ensure their safety, despite paying a premium at many such accommodations. Armed to the teeth with apps, gadgets and healthy scepticism, women continue struggle through the mire that is living in the city independently.

One of the hostel inmates at SRM University — who resides in the block where the controversy erupted — said the college has taken adequate measures since then to assure safety. “We have a female lift operator now, and the security guards have also been changed. But since the reception possesses a set of spare keys to our rooms, we are always a little wary.”

Here Sowmya, a third year student at an engineering college in the city, said that most out-of-town students, feel safer staying in private apartments when compared to college hostels.

“Campus hotels totally wreck our peace of mind, privacy, and as recent incidents have shown, our sense of safety too. Not only do the wardens question us wearing dresses or skirts when we come back to our rooms, but there have been cases of electricians or other helpers found moving around randomly in the corridors. Many girls have been targeted for smoking, and traumatised into leaving,” said Sowmya.

Usually, four to five girls take up a space independently. But how can these places guarantee more safety? “Most of these apartments in townships give us ID cards, and people can enter the premises only after showing cards to the security. Apart from friends or family members, nobody else is allowed without permission. In fact, even for food delivery, we go downstairs to the gate and collect it after there was an incident of a delivery boy harassing a girl.”

Twenty-year-old Yuvika Puru, who stays with her friends outside her campus, said that CCTV cameras in each block is also a pre-requisite when single women look for accommodation. “We ensure there are working cameras, and guards who monitor them. To be honest, ever since I moved to Chennai for my education, I’ve felt safe here. The irony is that the few times we have felt persecution is when policemen see us walking outside at night in shorts or western clothes, and bully us.”

An app developer in the city, who didn’t wish to be named, shares a couple of pointers she uses. “Be it picking a rented place for long-term stay, or even options like service apartments, beach houses or OYO rooms for business or personal use, I always use my smartphone’s LED and camera to detect hidden cameras.” She added, “My iPhone has a Hidden Camera Detector App I use for this. Another friend, who survived a bad experience of being taped in a hotel room, uses a specialty handheld detection device that uses flashing red LEDs around a lens that is held up to the eyes. They detect camera lens with bright red dots even from a distance of 15 feet. People can purchase these from Flipkart or Amazon online and are relatively inexpensive.”