Groping, lewd comments and other forms of eve-teasing are a few ordeals that over 500 girl students of a prestigious national institute have to bear with while en route to their campus every day. A police aid post, intensified patrolling, dozens of closed-circuit surveillance cameras and streetlights are set to make the campus a fortress soon. This is happening not in Haryana, a state infamous for skewed sex ratio and attacks on women. This institute is situated in Kerala's politically volatile Kannur district.
Kannur, home to the premier National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and the stronghold of the ruling CPM, is in the midst of allegations that the students of NIFT are being harassed daily on the streets and buses.
Onmanorama could decipher from the appalling revelations of girls that the otherwise active political parties, including CPM, Congress and BJP, were doing nothing to provide deliverance to the group of students who live with the harassment.
Pushing for reforms, freedom of sartorial choice and liberty to move around freely, some 500 students took out a protest march through the town recently.
The placards had crisp messages meant to 'enlighten' the local populace of the freedom to choose the dress of one's choice. They had also staged a street-play to put forth their message.
Worried over the attacks, the administration has decided to install closed-circuit surveillance cameras and more streetlights and intensify police patrolling around the institute. The Anthoor municipality had proposed a special police aid post on the NIFT campus, where around 800 students are admitted. But, will these steps wash away the blot on Kerala, which boasts of its high literacy rate and women empowerment. As Onmanorama set out to know the ground reality, a lot of students refused to come on record or in front of the camera.
N Elangovan, NIFT director, has imposed restrictions on spreading messages related to the protest on mainstream or social media as 'that could sully the image of the central institute'.
The civic authorities and P K Sreemathi, MP, have proposed the constitution of a welfare committee to 'ensure the safety of students' and to 'ensure smooth relations with the local community.'
Sub-inspector of police, Thalipparamba, Binu Mohan said not a single complaint had been filed either by students or the NIFT administration.
“The police registered four cases and made three arrests on its own,” he told Onmanorama recently.
“We have been asked to stay away from the media and not to post the details of our protest on social media,” a final-year student at NIFT said. (Even though he doesn't have any objection in revealing his name, Onmanorama is holding back his identity).
“Students have been threatened of dire consequences, including debarring and semester backs if the diktat is not followed. The gap between the local populace and the students has widened,” he added.
However, Elangovan said the administration had not imposed restrictions on students expressing their opinion on social media platforms.
"This is hardly a protest or an awakening. NIFT students are out with social enlightenment programmes like street plays on personal liberty. We want to resist all political interference in this issue. Messages denting the reputation of this institution are already circulating on social media. We have asked students to not make matters worse,” he said.
However, he said he was aware of the eve-teasing faced by NIFT students.
"Yes, there have been unfortunate instances. But I have not yet received a single complaint. Our college has a system to look into sexual harassment on the campus. But as these things happen outside the campus, the issue cannot be handled by the committee," he said.
PK Shyamala, Anthoor municipal chairperson, said people's prejudice against Kannur, as a land of political murders, has only worsened due to reports of the NIFT students' protest.
"Dharmasala (where NIFT is located in Kannur) is a land of fraternity and mutual respect. The people are not against NIFT students who are a liberal bunch, as is the general misconception outside. The natives, shopkeepers and the autorickshaw/taxi drivers here are very welcoming and friendly towards the students. Yet, it is dispiriting to know that some youngsters, who come in groups on motorcycles, indulge in antisocial and misogynistic activities,” she said.
Eve-teasing or moral policing?
"We got to this campus after a lot of hard work. NIFT is indeed a wonderful place for a fashion aspirant to nourish one's talents and prosper. Yet, there's a section of native people who view us as aliens, perhaps for our dressing style, language and cultural heterogenity,” another final year postgraduate student from Delhi told Onmanorama.
Students had collected more than 50 complaints of sexual assault outside the campus. They said a section of people indulged in groping and openly asked them how much they charge for a night-out.
Another student said the issue had its roots in the larger social psyche. It cannot be addressed through public interaction programmes or by imposing penalties. "A national campus is a cross-section of our country itself. When people watch us wearing clothes of our choice and hanging out with friends irrespective of gender and cultures, they are irritated. They take us for granted. We are not against the natives of Dharmasala. We understand that there are a couple of other educational institutions in this locality and they face similar problems, probably less frequently than we do,” she said.
“NIFT has a fashion conscious young crowd. Shutting our mouths is a rather easy way to put an end to the issue,” she said.
The police said NIFT students faced eve-teasing and it was not moral policing. "Some 12 people were arrested from different parts of Payyannur in the past two months for moral policing. In one incident native people were angered when they found a boy and a girl sitting together in a public place. But in our inquiries, people seldom pass moral comments on NIFT students. People appear to be more provoked by their dressing,” Binu Mohan said.
However, the local stationery vendors, rickshaw drivers and households speak proudly of the national institute in their tiny village. "I sell stationery items in a shop close to the NIFT campus. Students are so nice and they interact with the local community very warmly. We never ask them to change their dressing styles or stop hanging out after evening. Dharmasala isn't such a place. But then there are perverts in any society. When youngsters come from nearby villages and create trouble, you cannot blame it on the local community. We shall fight along with the students to beat this social evil," Sajeevan (name changed) told Onmanorama.
"We do not blame anybody in particular. It is the mindset that needs to change. When our friends come running tearfully to explain their bitter experiences on the road, we just cannot sit idle. We don't intend to accuse all the natives. And this isn't something peculiar to Kannur,” says a student.
The NIFT students' agitation raises questions about the health of the collective psyche of the state. Also, it could be a call to the ruling party and the government to go beyond parochial political statement-making to bring about a real change. Till then, the God's Own Country may have to grapple with moral policing, mob lynching and honour killings like in Haryana.