Women students rebel against university curfews in 'India's rape capital'
NEW DELHI: Twenty-year-old zoology student Rani Choudhary left her family home in Bihar for the bright lights and freedom of the Indian capital.
But like most female students in New Delhi she is barred from leaving her dorm at night except with the express permission of her father, thanks to a curfew designed to safeguard her in the city dubbed "India's rape capital".
Wary of the city's disturbing reputation for sexual violence, universities force women to return to their dorms as early as 7.00pm — while their male counterparts can stay out much later.
With the Pinjra Tod ("Break the Cage") campaign, launched in August, female students are fighting back against what they say is outright discrimination.
"You are supposed to go and be back at 7.00pm, at 7.30pm and 8.00pm, while your friends studying with you, boys, the men in your class, they can (go out at) night and they can enter the hostel by 10 or 12," said Shambhawi Vikkam, one of the ringleaders of the movement.
Also read: Indian police make first arrest in nun's rape
"And even if they have rules and regulations it doesn't really apply so strictly," the 23-year-old arts student at the University of Delhi said.