Dear Sir,
I write to you for the first time and I address this in a public forum. I would start with saying that I deeply respect you. I have heard good words during my stay and beyond and have celebrated your appointment for this position of responsibility, like every other fellow KGPian. I believe, it has been your encouragement, which reached us in one or other form, through open letters, that today I am mustering up the courage to address you through an open letter.
When you took up the charge, you told us:
" ..today, when we are all united in courage, strength, hope and capability -- when faculty, students, staff, BoG, Government, anyone connected to our Institute -- past or present -- the scientific community and even complete strangers have all come together to wish IIT Kharagpur well and helped hold its head high, I believe we stand a good chance to do something worthwhile."
And as much as I want to wish Kharagpur well, I can't. As much as I wish my alma mater holds its head high, I cannot bring myself up to do it. I do not want to work towards enhancing the identity of my alma mater which questioned my identity each day.
I write to you today to bring to your notice the blatant sexism that happens in the face of the institute, inside the institute and the hostels on campus. And yes, gender insensitivity here is not just at student community level but also in classrooms.
"All you have to do is smile at the Professors to get an A grade.." is a remark me and my batch-mates have heard from students and professors alike. "You can't win, because you are a girl", "You won because you are girl", "Girls here are ugly", and many more hurtful remarks are a part of our lives on campus which we silently absorb in the name of being strong and mature and practical. Let me assure you, Sir, I am not here to count and cry about those remarks. I am here to bring your attention to these.
www.fapkgp.tumblr.com ('Fap' means masturbation.)
These are videos made by some guys of my own college and there are worse versions available on our campus DC++. We were repeatedly told that skewed gender ratio leads to such actions and I believed them. But, no Sir, no. Skewed sex ratios do not lead to such actions, the inability to respect people does. The courage that they can get away with morphing pictures of their batch-mates leads to such actions. The confidence that they will get away with no strict disciplinary action leads to such actions. Their confidence in their sense of entitlement, to disrespect and judge women on the campus, leads to such actions. Actions which have lead to, at best, a haunting nightmare, and at worst, lasting emotional scars in the collective population of women that have passed through these hallowed portals of education. Actions which have lead us to question our own capabilities.
On Independence Day, you said "The people of this country pay for our sustenance in the hope that we shall change India and usher in a better future for them. We cannot afford to destroy the hopes and faith that they have bestowed on us."
And you are absolutely right, Sir. People around me look up to IITians to set an example, and have been shocked to know that sexism is prevalent at such high rates at an institute which boasts of respecting talent and intelligence. Surely, we cannot let them down. It needs to change.
You asked us, "What India shall we build my friends? What sort of Indians shall we become?"
I request you Sir, let's build an India, and an institute with environment that is free of gender insensitivity. I request you to encourage my fellow KGPians to respect each other as they are and not for who they are. I request you NOT to put restrictions on either gender for safety but teach what an open environment is about. We have tried the restriction method, haven't we - from 11 PM rule to proposal of dress codes during fests. We have imposed restrictions on ourselves, our juniors and friends. But these restrictions have only resulted in further segregation and compartmentalization rather than inclusion. We're students seeking your guidance on inclusion, not girls and boys who need to be 'handled' separately.
We have done enough of praying for safety, maybe it's time to fight the demons now!
I request you to lead the way, the foremost step being taking strong action against these cyber crimes.
We have done enough of praying for safety, maybe it's time to fight the demons now!
I request you to lead the way, the foremost step being taking strong action against these cyber crimes.
Jai Hind!
Saraswati
Saraswati
I seriously wish you send this to the diro. or may be a online petition which we can all sign up and then send in the collated responses to the director. He is a cool guy and I am sure he'll do his best to maintain decent standards in kgp.
ReplyDeleteI always get to hear from my friends that girls in Kgp are bad and all those kinds of stuff. Actually what I feel is the one who says that is even incapable of talking to a girl in the real world and would crib throughout his lifetime that everyplace he has attended have "bad" girls only. And the people who all have made those videos are really pathetic and are the biggest f***ing losers in this world. I wish someone makes a similar video featuring the lady members of their family and show them, and then see how "cool" those guys stay throughout the video. Being anonymous and doing such a thing isn't a matter of pride, but rather the most cowardly act ever. Using the mask symbol of the movie "V for Vendetta" in the end is simply laughable. How could they even enter IIT when they do not understand the difference between this video and the act the character does in the movie!
ReplyDeleteIts a very well compiled letter. However I would like to point out a few things if you don't mind.
ReplyDeleteThe comments you mentioned to start off your letter are very true but not just in IIT KGP. They persist at a much grander scale in almost all corners of our country. They do not just reflect the mindset of KGPians in particular but rather most Indians which you may come across. The thing I am trying to say is administrative regulations may help take away the "retarded" videos on DC++ but they won't solve the problem. It won't change the way girls are looked at in the institute and neither will it change the opinion KGP guys have about their female colleagues.
The thing about respect is you can't enforce it, you have to earn it. But the irony in that statement is that respect can only be earned from people who treat you as an equal, which is neither the case in KGP nor in India altogether when it comes to people from opposite gender. People have a hard time accepting the fact that women have a come a long way in India to walk shoulder to shoulder with men in every field there is.
So if its the culture which you want to change I believe it can only by starting a culture and make people realize its importance. The one thing I can say for sure that KGP specializes in is passing on its culture through the juniors and keeping it alive which may eventually glow into an example for all of India.
The students have to realize that the girls you see around in the institute are just as qualified as you are and being from a particular gender should not give you the right to look down upon them. If the administration can step in and do something about it, it would be an amazing development for our institute. Still I feel if it has to be more effective it should come up as culture from a student instead of "some new rule" or "no rule" (as you pointed out towards the end) because more often than not people see rules as a burden rather than an etiquette.
The audacity to create such public mockery can not be excused. It does not matter what triggered the person to do this. Someone else will do it again next year. Why should we waste our precious time in tracking (in fear and shame) when the next one will come and we can all shout again and argue whats the main reason behind all this behaviour. If the person who did this can live peacefully, without any agony, without any embarrassment, without any fear of consequences... Its cholbe na!
ReplyDeleteBoo ho. I don't know what exactly you are writing the Director about. Reading through your Part 1 and Part 2 posts, it seems like the most of the hostility and toxic remarks came from the girls in your Hall. Most the quotes that you've listed in Part 1 were said by your girl batchmates. In Part 2, someone in your hall leaked private photographs to someone outside, and when you have goofy looking photos of people in costumes, others will naturally ridicule them. Seems to me like you have shitty friends, and this has nothing to do with KGP culture. This is common among female peer groups everywhere (friendships among men is so much simpler). Family Guy does a good job of pointing this out:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hmlPtRu1SQ
The videos you've posted in Part 3 are more than 5 years old, and they had already faded from public memory until you brought them up again.
You are harping about a non-existent problem. The diro is a busy man, why should he respond to every butthurt feminist/social justice warrior out there? All he can do is take away more freedoms from KGP students, just so that he can claim to have done something.
Fear is freedom! Subjugation is liberation! Contradiction is truth! Those are the facts of this world! And you will all surrender to them, you pigs in human clothing!