After a three-day long peaceful protest at Regional Institute of Education (RIE), Bhopal, students were forced to call it off because of the administration’s coercive measures.
The protest began a few weeks ago when the college asked a student, suffering from depression, to vacate her hostel room when she asked for a week-long medical leave. When she did not agree to move out, the administration allegedly threatened her parents and branded her as a person with “loose character”.
According to Pinjra Tod, an autonomous women’s collective of students and alumni of college, complaints of administrative apathy towards students are not new at RIE campuses across India.
The RIE Institutes come under NCERT, and the administration all across these instates have put such arbitrary rules, restrictions and denied access to so many women in the university. The institute which is in Bhopal, Ajmer, Bhubaneshwar, Mysore, and Shillong saw massive protests in atleast three of these colleges in the month of September 2018.
Pinjra Tod has been at the forefront of the protests held at different RIE campuses since 2018, most of them against the administrations of colleges for having restrictive curfew timings for female students.
Also read: Night-long Protest at RIE Bhopal After College Expels Student Suffering From Depression
After getting no response from the administration after sitting for a peaceful protest for three days, the students of RIE Bhopal called off the protest, and decided to give some time to the administration – till April 15.
The administration then reportedly messaged the parents of the students, calling them to meet the principal about the “indisciplinary action”.
More so, two days after calling the protest off, the students were reportedly made to sign a paper saying they would call off the protest by the seniormost batch as campus placements were being blocked by the college authorities.
Of all the parents called, only four to five showed up as most students said that since they are above the age of 18, they have the right to make their own decisions.
Featured image credit: student at RIE Bhopal