Kolkata: The Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute here is on the boil after 14 girl students were expelled for protesting against the management’s decision to segregate hostels.
SRTFI expelled the students on the 14th of October after they stayed put in the boy’s hostel. They say the girls had got repeated warnings which included calling their parents, but they did not pay heed.
Now, the student body launched a protest against imposition of 'draconian rules' and 'threats of expulsion'.
The agitating students have boycotted classes according to the management, which says some teachers are not being allowed to enter the classes. On Tuesday, the agitating students blocked the administrative building barring the director, registrar and others in the management from entering their offices. Police was seen on campus which students say are intimidation tactics.
The protestors alleged that the segregation rule was made and imposed overnight. There was so such rule in the last 25 years since the institute was founded, they said.
There was a meeting on Tuesday between students and the management but no plausible solution has been reached yet. While the management says the students first have to move into the respective hostels before any discussion, the students maintain that the issues need to be resolved first.
The management said that segregation of the hostels was implemented as per a decision by the institute’s governing council taken in 2009. This was done to prevent cases of sexual harassment which have happened on campus in the past. Sometimes outsiders also reside in the hostel which is also a cause for concern, they said. According to the new rule, students are allowed to enter the girl’s hostel between 10pm and 6am for project work after signing a register at the entrance.
The institute comes under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Going by the governing council’s decision, the hostel for girls was constructed by 2015, the council said.
The management said that the students were asked to move in May to make space for the new batch entering the institute in August. Debamita Mitra, Director of SRFTI, told CNN-News18, “The 14 girls occupying the rooms were preventing the boys of the new academic session to rightfully occupy the rooms despite us repeatedly telling them. The new batch of male students had to be accommodated in the staff quarters.”
The institute alleged that some students barged into the girl’s hostel around 11pm on the 14th of October, broke the locks of 10 rooms and occupied them. The Institute filed an FIR against the students, without mentioning the names or the number of students present. The students, however, said the management named 10 students in the FIR of which two students were not present during the time of the incident.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the student body said, "The administration has been coming up with draconian rules every other day and threatening the students constantly with expulsion from the institute, calling the police to threaten the students, imposing fines."
Akshay Gouri, president of the student’s association told CNN-News18, “We had opposed the decision to segregate the hostels in the Academic Council meeting. Recently the management has become very rigid and is threatening expulsion. They are of the opinion that we have to listen to them speak.”
Students say the segregation of the hostel is being used as the primary issue when infact the other issues relating to the institute are falling on deaf years. They claim the director who was appointed in January has been ignoring pending issues and has been targeting certain students.
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