‘Campuses should not turn into jails’
A fence of barbed wires, armed guards, a biometric system for marking attendance and CCTV cameras… this is what campuses of higher educational institutions (HEIs) will have if the safety guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) are put in place. But these have not gone down well with the student and teacher community which is of the opinion that such steps are ‘unnecessary’.
Sunny Dhiman, a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) says, “These guidelines are a move to divert our attention from the real and more important issues that affect the quality of education such as the need for permanent counsellors, hostels for girls and fellowships, and gender sensitisation programmes.”
The UGC circular recommends that universities should aim to set up police stations within or near their premises. It also points out the ‘advantage’ of these measures, which is “to keep an eye on a student’s movements and whereabouts in a fail-safe manner.”
Questioning the motive behind such guidelines, another student (not wanting to be named) says, “If the UGC considers that the students’ safety is being compromised, why is it that the students themselves are being put into prisons with barbed wires, police postings and constant surveillance?”
Even though UGC has termed the guidelines as ‘suggestive measures’, academicians feel that such measures enforce the idea of ‘policing mentality’.
Brinda Bose, associate professor, JNU says, “Locking students into hostels and tracking their movements will not guarantee safety on campuses. This also contradicts the recommendations of Saksham Committee which was set up by the UGC itself after the 2012 Delhi gang rape.”
The Saksham report states that “campus safety policies should not result in securitisation, such as over monitoring or policing or curtailing the freedom of movement, especially for women.”
Mary E John, who co-chaired the UGC task force that came up with the report, says, “The guidelines were developed in a hasty manner. Moreover, a paragraph on sexual harassment has been lifted from the University of California’s guidelines on sexual harassment. When the Saksham report was approved by the UGC, then why hasn’t it been implemented yet? Students are being treated as potential criminals.”