Karol Bagh is a place in Central Delhi which is extremely popular for preparation of Indian Civil Services Examination. In Karol Bagh you will find a plethora of institutes for UPSC aspirants and the rush of students in the area all through the day is absolutely maddening. The institute from where I’m taking coaching has approximately five hundred students per class. We have back to back classes in different buildings with a gap of approximately 15-20 minutes between classes to rush from one building to another. Other than the institutes there are also fringes of book sellers surrounding the area and a regular market for garments and other accessories. In simple words, the area is absolutely jam-packed with mad rush of people.
Witnessing this mad rush here after my very first class had made me wonder about the lack of any grievance redressal mechanism pertaining to sexual misconduct in these coaching centers. The initial few weeks were fine but a few days ago when I was hastily coming out of the class to attend the next I had felt an extremely uncanny brush against my chest area by a young man. Unfortunately, before I could catch hold of him I had already lost him to the crowd.
Few days back while Sir was delivering a lecture on French Revolution we suddenly heard a girl sobbing in the middle of the class. She was seated around 15 rows away from the podium in a big hall but she was loud enough that we could hear her clearly in the front end of the hall. In my mind I could already anticipate what had happened (unfortunately that’s how normalized sexual abuse has become in our minds). She continued sobbing without uttering a single word as the teacher kept on asking what had happened! After a minute or so she finally shouted “He’s touching me. He’s continuously touching me in places, sir!” In a fraction of a second I could instantly observe a series of reactions coming from the crowd of students. A few seemed to empathize with her, a few were shocked and the worst of all some laughed at her treating the plight of the girl as a joke. Sir simply asked the boy to apologize and changed his seat. He asked him not to repeat it after exemplifying an IAS officer who was suspended few weeks back owing to a complaint filed against him by an air hostess pertaining to sexual misconduct. However, what was shocking here is that neither any complaint was filed against the boy, nor was any inquiry put in place and the teacher asked the boy not to repeat it not because the act was atrocious in itself but because it might affect the fellow’s career prospects. The chapter ended there, neither were any further steps taken against the boy nor was the girl provided with any sort of psychological support.
If you have been an UPSC aspirant residing in Karol Bagh area you would not be unfamiliar to the uncalled for sexual innuendos, inappropriate gestures by fellow students or even shop keepers, and the constant moral policing and surveillance by the landlord/landlady. These private coaching centers without having any cap on the number of students they are permitted to admit, very tactfully shift the residential responsibility onto surrounding real estate agents who loot you off your hard earned money and on the other hand provide absolutely no mechanism for any sort of grievance redressal, be it regarding physical/sexual misconduct or harassment by the management for classes, fees, etc. or even harassment by the landlord/landlady of pupils coming from across the country. Karol Bagh is the hub of UPSC CSE aspirants and nothing less than what a full-fledged college area or school area would look like and barring the presence of a few (3-4) police officers in the area (in the latter part of the day) there is no other authority present in case of emergency. UGC has mandated the establishment of Internal Complaints Committee in colleges. Although it’s extremely unfortunate that a significant number of colleges still don’t follow it but fortunately there’s a rule in place at least. The colleges can be approached and held accountable in case of breach of appropriate conduct. But what about these institutions? These institutions that have thousands of students enrolled who attend classes there from morning to night but are devoid of any sort of grievance redressal mechanism? Who is going to take the responsibility of the safety of the young students’ whose parents leave them here thinking the institute is going to be accountable for their safety? Where should the students seek justice in case of similar instances of harassment (given that approaching the police is immeasurably stigmatized)? What about the accountability of the institutes that are admitting thousands of students? I’m constantly focusing on the number of students here primarily because more often than not these sexual predators use ‘crowd’ as an excuse for harassment, it gets difficult to identify them in a crowded area and many people are hesitant to protest against such instances because of the sheer number of people present, amidst other reasons.
As a student, I believe, the establishment of mechanisms similar to Internal Complaints Committee, Equal Opportunity Cell and the like is an imperative for the formation and sustenance of a healthy academic environment in such coaching centers. It’s indeed ironical that every year a significant number of students qualify as IAS/IPS officers who have been residents of this area or students of institutes situated in this area but not even a discussion about a policy level change has ever even been brought up in the Parliament pertaining to the redressal mechanisms in such institutes. Are we failing to realize the shortcomings of these mushrooming sectors or are we deliberately maintaining the status quo?