In order to reclaim their right to inhabit public spaces without fear, girl students in south Delhi will take out a protest march leading to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) office on Friday, demanding safe and secure infrastructure for them on the streets of the national Capital.
"We will start from the Lady Shri Ram College and march to the MCD office in Lajpat Nagar, where we will submit a memorandum demanding immediate installation of streetlights across poorly lit lanes of south Delhi and installation of public toilets, so that the practise of men using the walls of women colleges to empty their bladders ends," said Devangana Kalita of Pinjra Tod, a campaign working towards ensuring non-gender-discriminatory accommodation for girl students.
"The unusual solutions given for our daily experience of sexual harassment are more CCTV cameras on streets, adequate police patrolling, and regulation on women's mobility. Women on brightly-lit streets feel safer than unlit and deserted streets. The streets will not become safer for women merely by putting them under restrictions," she said.
The memorandum has been signed by over 1,000 students. "We know that one protest march will not be enough as incidents of sexual harassment continue to take place. But the struggle to reclaim our lost public spaces has to be continuous and sustained," the organisers said.
According to a recent study by NGO Jagori, the rate of violence against women in Delhi continues to remain "unacceptably high", with the rate of crimes per one lakh women being 184.3, as against the national average of 53.9.
A safety audit conducted by the NGO in areas near south Delhi's women colleges — Lady Shri Ram, Gargi and Kamala Nehru — stated that visibility of (eyes-on-the-streets) security (police and private) has been found to be below normal, leading to few women using these areas after sunset.
"It was 4pm. I was walking towards my PG near the Moolchand Metro station when I realised that someone was following me. I turned around to see a man with his pants unbuttoned," said a 20-year-old Lady Shri Ram College student.
Several such incidents of street harassment have been reported from the areas around these colleges and PG accommodations. "Who will take responsibility for our safety? The police, the government, or the college authority? We ourselves have to come out on the streets to reclaim our lost freedom," a third-year student said.
"Those who think that they can clip our wings with these cheap stunts are wrong. We won't stop. We will fight to ensure our right to inhabit public spaces without any fear of harassment," another student said.
