Female students in India take on ‘Holi harassment’
New Delhi: Female students in India’s capital Delhi are protesting against harassment during the popular Hindu festival of Holi.
The BBC’s Nikita Mandhani spoke with them about their experiences.
Holi, a spring festival, is celebrated in many parts of India by people throwing coloured powder and water at each other.
But some women say their experience of the festival is far from the romantic representations promoted by Bollywood and tourist accounts. “As you grow older, Holi becomes the time when you start realising that your body is an object,” says Gurmehar Kaur, a student at Delhi university.
Several female students at the university told the BBC that they are scared of walking on the streets near their college campuses around Holi because they are hit by water balloons, mud or eggs.
A few days before the festival, Avidha Raha, was travelling in an auto rickshaw when a liquid-filled balloon hit her in the chest and exploded.
“I don’t know what it contained; it was sticky and slimy,” Ms Raha says. “I felt disgusted.”
When she heard stories of students who had been attacked with “semenfilled” balloons, she soaked her t-shirt in water for two days. Another student, Tolino Chishi, posted on Instagram on February 27, claiming that someone had thrown a “semen-filled balloon” at her.
The post went viral, triggering a few anti-harassment protests within and around the Delhi University campus. While it’s unclear how the students knew that the substance in these balloons was semen, being hit by balloons filled with coloured water is not new.
“On my way back from the protest, I was hit by a water balloon,” says Raginee Samarah.
“There were two boys on a bike who sped off after doing that.”
None of this is limited to Delhi. Women in cities and villages across northern India are anxious about leaving their homes during Holi. The day is often used as an excuse by strangers - mostly men - to smear them with colour or throw water at them. People often drink “bhang”, a liquid form of cannabis, on Holi, increasing the chances of women encountering groups of intoxicated men.