TISS students stage protest on Tuesday in Hyderabad against the management’s failure to address their complaints of harassment by locals, | EXPRESS
HYDERABAD: Students of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences(TISS) Hyderabad campus claim to be facing constant harassment from stalkers and neighbours around their new hostel campus in Attapur.
In a graphic post that has now gone viral on social media, the students have claimed that three of their friends were groped last week by a man who came riding on a Royal Enfield.
Recently, some students filed a police complaint against a coconut vendor for stalking and misbehaving with them. The Rajendranagar Police registered an FIR on Monday and have booked the accused for stalking. “The accused was constantly inquiring about the whereabouts of the students and harassing them,” said SHO G Suresh.
These do not seem to be isolated incidents. Earlier, few other students raised complaints against the resident of another building for allegedly flashing his private parts at them. However, police claimed the accused in this case was “mentally unstable” and that he was counselled for his behaviour.
Hostels not safe?
The management of the institution seems to have taken no measures to ensure safety of students. The hostel buildings -- 4 apartments in all -- sit bang in the centre of a residential area. “If they put so many boys and girls in such a place, you can’t expect the society to just open up their minds and accept you,” says Pallavi, a student.
Currently, the TISS campus in Rajendranagar only has academic facilities like classrooms. The administration has made hostel arrangements for 500-odd students in areas like Suleman Nagar, Chintalmet and Upperpally. Left alone with no proper security arrangements, what ensued was a series of harassments. At present, there is only one guard per building. “If that guard is not there at that moment, then anything can go wrong. We feel insecure even in broad daylight, and even to raise the issue with police because what if the miscreants opt to take revenge?” asks Sanjana Saxena another student.
The local police seem to have taken a serious view of the situation. “We have increased the patrolling in the area. Three vans make two rounds in the mornings and nights. We are also in touch with the administration and the private contractor who leased out the hostel to get two CCTV cameras fixed outside the premises,”said SHO Suresh.
“We are also pressing a dacoit team and She Team to go undercover and track down suspicious persons visiting the area. ” added the police official.
Moral policing rampant
Students say the increased presence of police has proven to be a double-edged sword. “Police patrolling did mitigate the problem of harassment, but then we started getting instances of moral policing. We were told this place cannot culturally accept boys and girls ‘roaming’ together,” says a student who did not want to be named.
Also, TISS Hyderabad students pay up to `8,700 as hostel fee for every month, which is also on the higher side compared to Mumbai and Guwahati campuses where it ranges at `5,000.
TISS responds
“Our short term goal is to strengthen the security of the campus. We have met the police commissioner of the area to push in more security and council the locals in the area. As for our long term goal, we are working to get our new campus ready and hopefully move into it by 2020. The shift would have happened sooner but was stalled due to some technical issues,” said Abdul Rahmat,
member of Office of Students affair at TISS.
