The all-women Miranda House college in New Delhi saw its students experiencing harassment after a bunch of unruly men, chanting slogans, catcalling, and scaling walls entered the college to witness a Diwali fest organized on the campus. It was an open event which meant all college students could have come in that but within an hour of the fest beginning, long rows of students had surrounded around the college, waiting for an entry. The college authorities realized it could not accommodate any more students and attendees and they were ordered to evacuate the area and move out.
After the incident, some of the students tried to get into the college by climbing walls or in any way that they could fathom. A student named Shobana of the same college, tweeted a video of men climbing walls to get into Miranda House and alleged that students experienced catcalling, groping, sexist sloganeering, and beyond.
“Many attendees of the fest, primarily men, went entirely out of control at this move and reacted aggressively when the administration prevented them from being on campus. They entered restricted premises like classrooms, ignored the requests of professors and staff, responded rudely to appeals to behave, and invaded the students' personal space," the college's Women's Development Cell said.
No Police case has been registered yet. Delhi Police has claimed that the men were prevented from entering the college, there were no complaints of any problems and the event was going as planned. However, later they registered the complaint about some unidentified students trespassing thanks to the video shared on Twitter by a student.
“At some point, a huge crowd gathered inside and so, for some time, the entry gates had to be closed by the college administration. Some students [three or four] were trying to enter to see the Diwali Mela by climbing the walls. They were stopped and they could not enter the college premises. This is the video of that time. It is pertinent to mention that no complaint has been received as alleged by the administration also. And also, the program went very peacefully and incident free," the police said in a statement.
Principal Bijayalaxmi Nanda said the college will support and counsel its students and faculty members to ensure that the institution continues to be viewed as a safe and enabling space, and it is also said by the management that all fairs will be an Intra-college event and will have to be organized after 2 pm.
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