Amidst the series of accounts of sexual harassment being shared by present and past students of Symbiosis institute, fear has gripped the parents of girls students. Some of the parents even told DNA that they are contemplating of withdrawing admission of their daughters to take them back to their respective cities after a girl was molested less than a month back inside the campus. 

The campus in question here is of Symbiosis School of Liberal Arts (SSLA)  at Vimannagar and girls students staying in the hostel of the institute have alleged of sexual harassment inside their hostel. A parent of a girl who is from Mumbai told DNA, "Since the MeToo campaign, now the girls are coming up with their experiences which as parents we find very disturbing."

"We have now come to know about an incident which happened on September 25 this year, where a girl was molested by one of the person from administration department inside her hostel room. The incident took place in the afternoon and when the complaint was made to the institute authorities, they fired the person instead of lodging a police complaint," the parent said. 

Apart from this incident, several girls have complained that inspite of it being a ladies hostel, several men are allowed to enter the hostel which is quite unsafe. "When we enrolled our daughter for the course, I was also not allowed to go to her room. I was impressed then. However, now my daughter and other girls have stated that several men come to the hostel to carry out some work at the hostel and they keep roaming at any of the floor without any of the lady security guard accompanying them. My daughter told me that some of these men keep staring at girls which scare them," another parent said. 

According to these parents, after the MeToo campaign started, the girls from the hostel mustered the courage and they raised the complaint to the institute authorities. The parents are now worried about the safety of their daughters staying hostel. Some of them are even thinking of withdrawing their admissions and taking them back to their respective cities. 

"We do not want to keep our daughters in such unsafe environment. Some of us are thinking of taking our daughters back to home. We do not mind them getting enrolled in any of the institute which might be lesser known but at least they will be with us," said a parent. 

Based on the complaints, a meeting was called by the authorities with the girls on Thursday. When DNA contacted Anita Patankar, director of SSLA, she said "We have CCTV cameras in place and we also have deployed women wardens in hostels. When some men are required to enter into the hostel for some work, the women warden accompany them."

Patankar however admitted that there were some incidents in the past. "Some students have made complaints in the past and we have taken serious cognizance of their complaints. We already have ICC in place and we encourage students to speak out their grievances. We are always ready to improve where there is a scope for improvement," she said.