Miranda House Case: Times When Women's Safety Was Hijacked Within College Premises

Miranda House Case: Women’s colleges in India are made built so that women can safely seek education without having to bargain safety for education. I have also been a student at a women’s college for five years and the kind of safety I felt in the college was different. After entering the college, it felt as if I have left the termites of women’s safety behind me at the gate and I am a completely free person who can wear or do anything without any fear. The fear that women face staying in society couldn’t trespass the gates of my college.

But in recent years, the situation has been changing. Men, who embody the fear of women, are trespassing the women’s institutions. They are climbing walls, forcing themselves through the crowds and entering without valid IDs.

As if trespassing was not enough, these men harass, tease and grope women in the corridors of college. This often happens on the days when the college hosts festivals and programmes to connect society with peace and harmony. I am not generalising the fact that it happens in every women’s institution. I am not trying to say that every women’s college is unsafe at some point and so we cannot see it as a place where women can seek ">education without deprioritising their safety. But just because these incidents happen rarely we cannot ignore their impacts. We cannot let go of those men who harass women in such colleges. We cannot ignore such incidents as something happening once in a blue moon. They need equal attention, action and avoidance as any other issue that affects women in our society. Every attempt at outraging the modesty of women is punishable.

In this article, I am going to list out a few incidents in which men barged into women’s institutions and caused a ruckus. The aim is to draw people’s attention towards these incidents, even though they happen rarely so that they can be avoided in future.

1. Miranda House, Delhi

Just yesterday, news of men trespassing Miranda House, a women’s college affiliated with Delhi University, while the college was celebrating Diwali fest. Reportedly, men climbed through walls and entered the college. It is also alleged that the trespassers teased, groped and molested women in the college. Videos of men climbing walls of the college have gone viral. This has prompted Delhi police to start a probe against those men. A second-year BA program student said, “Men climbing over the walls to get into Miranda House during an open fest. What followed was horrible. Catcalling, groping, sexist sloganeering and more. Men entering safe spaces to harass gender minorities is nothing new, but they outdo themselves every time.”

“A case under section 354D (stalking), 509 (outraging modesty of a woman), 448 (punishment for house trespass), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered and investigation has been taken up,” said Sagar Singh Kalsi, deputy commissioner of police, North Delhi.

2. Gargi College, Delhi

In the year 2020, many women of Gargi College, Delhi University, were groped, harassed and stalked during the college’s three-day annual function Reverie. Some women even had to suffer the sight of seeing men masturbating at them. This happened after men crashed the college using invalid IDs, scaling the gates of the college. Allegedly these men were drunk and entered the college to harass women. The college filed an FIR and formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the incident. The police found 100 suspects using CCTV footage. 10 miscreants were taken into custody.

3. Indraprastha College, Delhi

On September 16, 2007, women of Indraprastha college of Delhi were harassed physically and verbally by men. These men had come to the north campus of Delhi University to appear for the police entrance exam and while returning from the exam centre they harassed several women in the college. The Vice Chancellor later issued orders to the University to not hold such exams near the college campus in the future.

4. Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Bihar

On October 7, 2018, a mob of men entered Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya and hit minor girls with rods and canes for resisting sexual advances. 34 girls were badly injured and rushed to hospital. The mob belonged to a nearby village named Darpakha Village in Bihar’s Saupal district. A police case was also registered.

Views expressed are the author's own.