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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 11, No. 10
Publication Date: October 25, 2024
DOI:10.14738/assrj.1110.17704.
Bhatia, A., & Kashyap, R. (2024). The Issue of Safety Amongst Undergraduate Students in the University of Delhi. Advances in Social
Sciences Research Journal, 11(10). 112-120.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
The Issue of Safety Amongst Undergraduate Students in the
University of Delhi
Anjali Bhatia
Department of Sociology,
Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi 110024
Rina Kashyap
Department of Political Science,
Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi 110024
ABSTRACT
In this paper we investigate what are the connotations of safety for students and in
what way is college a safe space. In the questionnaire administered, there was no
specific question on safety. However, the response to our first question—What does
entering college mean to you? —saw a significant percentage (68%) of female
students associating entry into college with entry into a safe space. Students’
expectations from college —as revealed in their responses to other questions—go
beyond physical safety, not only do they draw attention to the multidimensionality
and complexity of the concept, but in doing so they mark out and identify within the
safe environs of college, temporally and spatially fluid islands of unsafety. Their
responses problematized the notion of safety, thus alerting us to a political
(including gendered) and expansive understanding of safety. In this expansion
safety emerges as a cluster concept incorporating dimensions of gender, equality,
justice, freedom and democracy. This paper makes two arguments, first that the
college experience contributes to the students’ understanding of safety in its
multidimensionality. The connotations of safety include both the physical and the
socio-psychological dimensions. Second that in the articulation of this learning a
student develops a critical understanding of social, political, and economic
structures of power.
Keywords: safety, unsafety, gender, city, University.
INTRODUCTION
This article is based on a study of four constituent colleges of the University of Delhi.1 In this
paper we investigate what are the connotations of safety for students and in what way is college
a safe space. In the questionnaire administered, there was no specific question on safety.
1 The study was conducted amongst undergraduate students of four constituent colleges of the University of Delhi.
College A is an all-women’s college and college B is co-ed college in the South campus of the University. College C is an
all-women’s and college D is a co-ed college in the North campus of the University.
There were 50 respondents each from colleges B, C and D, and 200 respondents from college A. 30% of the responses
were collected online; 70% of the responses were collected in person.
In addition to the questionnaire, the data was collected via a workshop and focus group discussions of representatives
from all four colleges and unstructured interviews with students.
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Bhatia, A., & Kashyap, R. (2024). The Issue of Safety Amongst Undergraduate Students in the University of Delhi. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 11(10). 112-120.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.1110.17704
However, the response to our first question—What does entering college mean to you? —saw a
significant percentage (68%) of female students associating entry into college with entry into
a safe space. Students’ expectations from college —as revealed in their responses to other
questions—go beyond physical safety, not only do they draw attention to the
multidimensionality and complexity of the concept, but in doing so they mark out and identify
within the safe environs of college, temporally and spatially fluid islands of unsafety. Their
responses problematized the notion of safety, thus alerting us to a political (including
gendered) and expansive understanding of safety. In this expansion safety emerges as a cluster
concept incorporating dimensions of gender, equality, justice, freedom and democracy.
This paper makes two arguments, first that the college experience contributes to the students’
understanding of safety in its multidimensionality. The connotations of safety include both the
physical and the socio-psychological dimensions. Second that in the articulation of this learning
a student develops a critical understanding of social, political, and economic structures of
power.
This article is divided into four sections. The Introduction in the first section is accompanied by
a discussion that establishes the context of the study. The second section brings forth the
meaning and various connotations of the concept of safety for students. The third section
analyses how unsafety is embedded in the structures of power. It also points out how students
gradually learn to see unsafety as not a social vagary but as a structural problem that must be
revealed and resisted. The fourth section is the conclusion which highlights the key points of
our analysis.
SAFETY IN THE UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENT
Safety is an important concern in urban contexts (Datta 2021; Hengehold 2011; Mitchell 2004;
Moser 2012; Strandbygaard, Jones, Jensen, Nielsen, & Grönlund 2020; Yu, Fang, Xue, & Yin
2014). The city of Delhi, where the four constituent colleges are located, has acquired notoriety
of being ‘one of the most unsafe cities in the world for women’ (Vishwanath & Mehrotra 2007:
1542). Literature review on the subject brings forth an important comparative insight—
contrary to the Indian undergraduate student’s experience, the campus of the Global North
university is regarded as unsafe (Faulconer, Dixon, Griffith and Frank 2020; Fisher 1995; Hodge
2013; Klodawsky & Lundy 1994; Srinivasan 2024). In the backdrop of these comparative
insights, the idea of college as a safe space in context of the University of Delhi in the Global
South, poses a problem. Before proceeding further, it must be underlined that this does not
mean that the campus of the University of Delhi and its constituent colleges—while the former
is an open campus the latter are gated complexes—have a spotless record of being without
incidents of crime and violence. More recently there were incidents of men gate-crashing and
harassing female students at the premises of Miranda House (Pandey 2022) and Indraprastha
College (Khan 2023).
During the time of annual college festivals, the number of security personnel including that of
the state police are increased around college premises. The University recognizing this problem
of safety has taken measures in this regard to address the issue. Anticipating hooliganism,2 the
2
SeeDU tightens security before Holi to prevent Hooliganism and rowdy conduct https://indianexpress.com/article/education/du- tightens-security-before-holi-to-prevent-hooliganism-rowdy-conduct-9215394/
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 11, Issue 10, October-2024
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
University juggles the academic calendar to ensure that the mid-semester break coincides with
the Holi––the festival of colours. The University has formulated anti-ragging instructions that
are to be strictly enforced by its constituent colleges. Since 2015 it is binding on all universities
and colleges in India to have an ‘Internal Complaints Committee’ to prevent and address issues
of sexual harassment of employees and students. It follows from the above that the University’s
understanding of safety places a premium on the physical dimension.
CONNOTATIONS OF SAFETY FOR STUDENTS
Physical Dimension of Safety
The need for physical safety was expressed by female students only. They regard college as a
safe space that provides them with physical protection. This spatial understanding suggests a
distinction between an ‘inside’ and an ‘outside’ wherein the inside (of college) is safe and
outside (of college) is unsafe. The inside, that is, college is vested with legitimacy as an academic
institution that operates under rules and reserves rights of entry into its premises; as a public
institution it is accountable to the law of the land. The entry and exit points into a college are
manned by security personnel (mostly from private companies) and are under camera
surveillance. While the movement of the security personnel is restricted, the CCTV cameras
with features such as dynamic range, remote monitoring, cloud storage, night vision, motion
sensing and sound reproduction, have a long and wide view of the field of vision. The college
transacts its responsibility to provide a safe campus via such security measures.
The college boundary wall punctuated by entry and exit gates, organizes space into inside and
outside. Female students regard the space outside the college boundary as an unsafe zone that
includes unmanned parks, lanes, poorly lit roads, walkways to the metro station, isolated
markets and streets. The figure of threat and danger of the unsafe outside is the sexual predator
and marauder.3 The predatory behaviour–anticipated by students–is never a surprise. Student
7 of college A spoke about being often accosted by catcalling and masturbating men in the public
park which she had to cross on her way to college from her nearby paying guest accommodation
(PG). What worried her was the daily occurrence of such episodes which were coincident with
her college timings. That such behaviour is the predator/marauder’s premeditated routines is
well known to both, the outstation and local students.
The dread of potential physical assaults creates a mental and emotional trauma for the
students. In a tutorial class a female student shared with one of the authors of this article that
the daily fear made her nervous and she could not concentrate in classes as she would be
worrying about her journey back home through the unsafe park. The student’s anxiety reached
such levels that her mother had to fly down to Delhi and take her for psychiatric counselling.
The quest for physical security by young women is not without its mental and emotional toll.
Gargi Student’s protest continues: DU teachers and students back them https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/gargi- students-continue-to-protest-many-back-them/articleshow/74090058.cms
Police identify eight more students in IP college casehttps://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/police-identify-eight-more- students-in-ip-college-case-8551453/
3 We are grateful to Prof. Amrit Srinivasan for this point