Over 200 girls of Panjab University hostels have started protest demanding 24-hour open girl’s hostels. Hostellers led Panjab University Campus Students' Council (PUCSC) president Kanupriya shouted slogans like 'freedom is our right' and 'we want freedom from patriarchy'. According to a report in The Indian Express, over 200 girls joined Kanupriya in the protest. Woman residents of these hostels are not allowed to leave the campus after 9 pm and have to mark their attendance daily. However, they can enter till 11 pm.
“The 11 pm curfew is a sham. The authorities like to boast about it but we can only enter till 11 pm. We cannot exit the hostels after 9 pm,” a protester, who refused to be named, was quoted as saying in the report. Kanupriya, 22, is a second-year Master's in Science student in the Zoology Department and owes allegiance to Students for Society, an organisation with leftist leanings. She was elected as the first woman President of the PUCSC last month.
Apart from 24-hour open hostels, there are other demands like the lighting on the streets, hoardings of anti-sexual harassment panel outside hostels and departments and student representation in the Punjab University Committee Against Sexual Harassment (PUCASH). Earlier, girls of Punjabi University had called off their strike after varsity authorities extended the entry time for hostel from 8 pm to 9 pm and agreed to some other demands. As per the new rule, the girls entering their hostels between 9 pm and 10 pm, however, would have to mark their presence in the register to be maintained for this purpose, instead of submitting any application, mentioning the exact time and reason, etc. for their late entry.
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