The students at Azim Premji University in Bengaluru’s Sarjapura staged a sit-in protest since Wednesday, March 16 demanding that the university set up a safe commute in the form of hourly shuttles between the campus and university-provided hostels and additional security near the external residences. The students have said that their campus is located in a remote area, and they have to get to the campus from the hostels and vice versa on their own by walking for a certain stretch and using BMTC buses. After a female student was allegedly harassed on her way to college in broad daylight at 10 am on Wednesday, the students began to stage protests, saying that the college has not been listening to their long-standing demands.
The protest started at 1 pm on Wednesday with most students staying away from classes, and some faculty also cancelling classes in solidarity with the students. Students said this isn’t the first such incident to be reported, and they have been demanding shuttles and safe mobility ever since the new Sarjapura campus opened in March 2021.
“It's a shame that a university as large as this cites ‘budgetary restraints’ as an excuse to not provide something as basic as shuttle service. The existing shuttles are not frequent and don't connect hostels to campus,” tweeted Anusha, one of the students at the University. She alleged that the students are being gaslit, shamed and their demand for safety is being dubbed as ‘entitled behaviour.’ The university is also not compliant with POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Act), she added.
The University moved to a new campus in 2020 and since then has disbanded a representative student body, leaving students with no mechanism to address their issues or grievances, said Nikhil*, a final-year student of Masters in Development Studies at the university. Over a period of time, several issues like safety of students and quality of food have emerged at this campus which is in a very isolated location in Sarjapura, he added.
The University has still not finished construction of its hostels and therefore the PG students are made to stay outside the campus in external residences, which are located up to 3 km away from the university premises, said Nikhil. The shuttle buses only come up to a point and the rest of the way has to be navigated by road and via BMTC (Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation) buses which leaves the female students vulnerable to incidents of harassment, he said. The university has not shown any sensitivity in taking concrete steps to address the issues raised by the students, he added.
Since November 2020, multiple cases of harassment, molestation and robberies or attempted robberies have occurred involving students during their commute to college, Nikhil told TNM.
Despite raising this issue multiple times with the university, the students claimed that they were denied shuttle buses to and from the campus on a regular basis. The demand for shuttle buses continued over the past year and into this year as well but the university claims it "does not have the funds" for the same, said Nikhil.
Meanwhile, the Registrar held a meeting with the students on Thursday, and the University has agreed to most of the demands. The University has agreed to introduce frequent shuttles to all residences and has also promised to increase patrolling outside them. It has also said that the process of setting up a grievance redressal committee will start soon. After the assurance from the University, the students called off the protest on Thursday evening.
(*name changed on request)