IIT-Roorkee changes rules, girls on campus no longer subjected to curfews

The Pinjra Tod movement, the objective of which is to challenge the strict regulations hostels and paying guest accommodations impose on female students, saw participation from institutes like Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Ambedkar University, Delhi Technical University, and Lady Shri Ram College for Women when it was born in August 2015.

Adding more support from across the country, several students from NIT Calicut, IIT-Roorkee, and Punjabi University have adopted the Pinjra Tod movement to cater to their own patriarchal polices and problems, especially for female students. This movement has fuelled various fraternities of women, which helped them speak up about moral policing, curfews, higher prices on accommodations, and a few others. They also focused on the establishment of a sexual harassment committee which was recommended according to the guidelines of the University Grant Commission in the year 2006.

In the wake of this movement, the administration of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee has revoked restrictions such as curfews for girls.

According to a report by PTI, AK Chaturvedi, Director of IIT-Roorkee, has said,

The students have been demanding this for long and we have decided to do away with the restrictions. Like boys, girls can also step out of their hostels and roam around the campus round the clock.

Apart from revoking this rule, the in-campus library will now be open 24/7 from a week before the examinations until they end. Boys and girls can now enter the common rooms in the each other's dormitories. The management is also ensuring that two patrol vans with security personnel are in place for the security of girls.

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