DTU rolls back ‘biased’ timing of girls’ hostel

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 11

Delhi Technological University (DTU) has rolled back “discriminatory” timing of its girls' hostel following a notice from the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW).

In a reply to the woman panel’s notice, the varsity said it has revised the hostel timing from the new semester, i.e. 2017-18 and made similar to that of the boy’s hostel.

Earlier, the closing time for girls' hostel was 9 pm whereas the boys' hostel had the closing time as 11 pm and the reason cited was that it was for the safety of the girls that such timing had been fixed.

Following which, DCW Chairperson Swati Maliwal had issued a notice to the DTU in this regard.

“Your point is well taken and accordingly the meeting of the wardens' council was called to discuss the matter. Based on the recommendations of the warden council, the DTU has decided to extend the girls' hostel timing up to 11 pm within DTU campus from the coming academic session tentatively,” the reply said.

Swati had said it is not fair to put the onus of security on the girls and discriminate against them. If there are security concerns, the university management, women's commission and police should work together instead of imposing the rule against girls, she said.

The DCW chief has also written a letter to the police outlining the security concerns raised by the university management.

She had also urged the police to make the environment around the campus safe so that girls are free to move about at any time.