Delhi University’s ‘Pinjra Tod’ campaign flies high

New Delhi: Started last year as a collective effort in the form of protestations against curfews in women’s hostels on college campuses in Delhi University, “Pinjra Tod” (PT) has now connected over six universities online. The movement has been successful as it compelled the Delhi Commission for Women to issue notices to seven colleges demanding an explanation why hostel timings differ for men and women.

The campaign garnered success as it even led to removal of guardian’s permission for leave.

Pinjra Tod, which means “break the cage,” grew out of a Facebook page in August 2015, where women’s hostel and P-G residents shared their bitter experiences with guards, wardens, principals, and landlords.

According to Devangana Kalita, one of the founding members of PT, the campaign is the result of a much older women’s movement. “The campaign’s name resonates with the situation women hostelers in different colleges and universities find themselves in today — big walls, huge metal gates, locking of gates at night, numerous security guards, constant checking of Id-cards, a plethora of arbitrary and regressive restrictions,” she said.

As a part of the campaign, female students from DU, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi Technical University, Ambedkar University Delhi, National Law University, and Indraprastha University have been reclaiming the streets of Delhi, staging street plays, singing, congregating, and normalising their presence there at night. While fighting gender issues together through signature campaigns, online petitions, and meetings, the movement has since then been gathering steam. Ranging from curfews to clothes to differing levels of moral policing, the Delhi-wide student campaign seeks to break through the deeply sexist and suffocating rules. With their movement gaining momentum, the collective is also moving forward by taking up several other issues such as forced marriages and equality in education.