Just a few days ago, a video of an entire men’s college catcalling and shaming women of an all women’s college from Spain went viral and left us all appalled. It left women across the globe feeling scared, unsafe and, of course, angry. For the longest time, men have chosen educational institutes as a hunting ground for women. Take a look outside any women’s college and you’ll probably spot a bunch of ill-mannered men waiting to harass women. And now it seems men in India have decided to take inspiration from this viral video of male students mass catcalling women but they decided to take it a notch higher. Just a day ago, a student from Delhi’s women’s college Miranda House College shared alarming videos of men chanting slogans, catcalling women and even scaling the walls of the college to enter it during a Diwali festival organised on the campus.
The student shared 3 videos on Twitter which show men climbing the walls of Miranda House College while chanting “Ramjas ka naara hai, Miranda poora humara hai.” Further, the student revealed that all this was followed by catcalling, groping, sexist sloganeering as well as other things. She went on to call the incident “despicable”. Well, we agree, girl. Men really have managed to take catcalling up a notch and what’s worse is that, in response to this tweet, several former students of the college have revealed that this is nothing new.
All my life, I’ve wanted a kickass college experience and I knew Delhi was the perfect place for it but being someone who was born and brought up in a protected environment (courtesy Indian Navy) and living most of my life in Mumbai, I couldn’t bring myself to risk moving to the capital known for being unsafe for women. More so because I’ve lived life as a free bird in Mumbai. From coming home post-midnight to stepping out at 4 am for the famous cycle wali idli, I’ve done it all (alone, might I add). And as much as I believed that the educational institutes in Delhi do provide a safe environment, I couldn’t bring myself to give up the kind of freedom, independence and wings that Mumbai gave me and after watching this, I’m glad I skipped out on the “college experience”.
Looking back at this, it’s scary to think that this criminal behaviour has become a “tradition” that has been passed on for years. And these men had the time and energy to actually plan and execute this whole mass catcalling and criminal trespassing and alleged molestation. These young men orchestrated a coordinated attack on a women’s college, making women feel unsafe and violated in an educational institute. Men have been actively making efforts to make the lives of women trying to get some education difficult. They’re really going the extra mile to make our lives tough while we simply struggle to keep our heads above the water. Thanks to men and their criminal behaviour, a large number of women are forced to quit education because “boys will be boys” and we gotta protect our “ghar ki izzat” by keeping her at home. Men really must be very intimidated by educated and opinionated women, hai na? I mean they really are going the extra mile to trespass into an educational institute to make female students feel unsafe and scare them away. And it’s nothing new, we’ve seen all the roadside Romeos outside women’s colleges for time immemorial. The actions of these men is a proof of our Indian “sanskaars”, hai na? I wonder what the mothers of these hooligans have to say about their ladla betas groping women. TBH, the kind of anger that I felt just looking at these video make me want to let out a string of some choicest words. Are we ever going to really give these young men some “sanskaars”? Or are they only reserved for women while these boys continue their criminal behaviour?
Also Read: More Than 100 Male Students Of Madrid College Executed A Coordinated Verbal Abuse Of Female Students. Remind Us Again Why ‘Not All Men’?
But I really want to understand something, apart from wanting to make women unsafe, do these men think that catcalling will help them get a girl? Do they really think it’s attractive? Because if I’m being honest, to me the men who scaled the walls of Delhi’s Miranda House College basically declared war on womenkind and let me tell you something. Women have been holding anger in for a long long time. Men do not want a war with us. If anything, men need to quit harassing women and using our bodies and sexuality to oppress us. By attacking women at the Miranda House College, these men have asked for a war and I hope and pray to god that women don’t unleash years of pain, oppression and trauma caused by such men and their criminal behaviour. We’ve had enough. And to watch young me indulge in this behaviour is not just pissing off but also heartbreaking. How long must we hold our anger and live in the fear of being sexually assaulted at any moment?