On the 4th of January this year, Mount Carmel College declared its decision, through an Instagram post, to transform from a women’s college to a coeducational institution starting from the 2024-25 academic year that commenced on June 20th. This decision was met with numerous concerns and opposition from the students for several reasons, including the lack of adequate infrastructure, the absence of an effective sexual harassment cell, and the unresponsiveness and lack of support from the management and faculty in handling harassment cases. Merely three weeks into the academic year, an incident of harassment sparked outrage on social media. A fun and wholesome activity conducted by the Women’s Cell where one writes a note to a stranger and receives one in return took a vile turn when a group of male students wrote vulgar and sexual comments on notes. An Instagram reel was posted by an anonymous account, exposing the vulgar notes written by these students. Instead of addressing this case of harassment and dealing with it, the Principal, who also happens to be the coordinator of Student Grievance Redressal Committee, decided to sweep it under the rug by threatening students and getting the reel taken down as it ‘tarnished’ the image of the institution. Additionally, a faculty in charge of the Women’s Cell told the members that they should teach male students to behave, as they are new to the college. The response from the management clearly shows that it is not concerned about the safety of students on campus, but only about maintaining a good image of the institution. It seemed to be more of a case of a PR disaster than one of harassment. This was unsurprising to the students as we are already aware of the way in which the management usually functions. Following the announcement of the decision in January, the students carried out a signature campaign against this authoritarian decision of the management. It received massive support from students as over 1,200 signatures were collected. These were submitted to the management along with a letter containing the concerns and demands of the students. The management, however, refused to address the crowd who had gathered to submit the signatures and instead spoke privately with a few students, isolating them from the crowd. Then, they responded with complete apathy to the plight of the students and asserted that they did not give us “permission” to conduct such a signature campaign.
In the letter to the Principal, the students pointed out the lack of an elected and independent representative student body that serves as a platform for students to voice out their concerns on campus. In response to this, the Principal assured a monthly meeting of elected class representatives with the nominated student council members to discuss student concerns. She also promised us that Muslim students would not be made to remove their abayas right at the gate, instead a separate changing space would be provided for this purpose. However, these hollow promises remain unfulfilled. The lack of adequate infrastructure on campus to facilitate this decision was also highlighted, as the consequences of the decision are being borne by all students, regardless of gender. For instance, increasing the number of student intake without making proper arrangements to accommodate all the students resulted in a cramped campus that causes discomfort to all students. Moreover, male students have only two washrooms in total on campus, one of which used to be a washroom for female students earlier. The implementation of this decision was thus merely a pursuit of profits without keeping in mind the consequences that the students face, like compromising on the quality of education and life on campus. MCC has a Student Grievance Redressal Committee headed by the Principal and a Committee Against Sexual Harassment (CASH) under the ‘Internal Complaints Committee’ which most students have never heard of. The convenient exclusion of students from these committees has led to them being almost defunct. Most harassment cases generally go unreported due to systemic issues in the society. However, these management-run committees try to silence such issues in order to save their image. In such a situation, it becomes extremely important that such committees of huge significance to the welfare of the students be run by students. What we see currently in MCC is the result of authoritarian and undemocratic management and a lack of student participation in decision-making. The concerns raised by students, which were conveniently ignored back in January, have since escalated into more significant issues affecting a larger number of students. It becomes important that students remain united and fight for a truly democratic campus and a healthy environment for education.
