DU students said the protests at Jantar Mantar in July have gained confidence to raise their issues
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
More than 500 women gathered at Delhi University’s South Campus on Thursday holding banners and placards highlighting sexual violence against women and minor girls in the Capital. The city has witnessed several such protests since reports about the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old girl in Kalkaji surfaced last month.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of several such recent sexual assault cases, including the September 21 incident in Kalkaji, observing that public spaces could not be allowed to become “zones of high risk” because of “lax patrolling and other preventable administrative deficiencies”, and sought a response from the Delhi government and police.
Demand for safety
Thursday’s protest saw students take out a march from the Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus metro station near Satya Niketan to the South Campus gate on Benito Juarez Marg, around a kilometre away. Photos and videos of the march were widely shared on social media.
The banners held during the protest included several two-liners that became popular during recent woman-only stirs: ‘Ek kachori, do samosa, in mardon ka kya bharosa’ and ‘Mere sar mein dard hai, iska kaaran mard hai’.
The march was held ahead of the protest called by the All India Students’ Association at Jantar Mantar on Friday to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Heavy police deployment was seen in central Delhi and along the march route.
The students were dispersed soon after the march and not allowed to hold a sit-in. For the participants, the march was about more than the September 21 Kalkaji incident.
“After the last Jantar Mantar protest [in July], we realised that if we start speaking, things can be changed. After [Dharmendra] Pradhan resigned as Union Education Minister, we gained the confidence to raise our issues,” said Nirali, a second-year student at Aryabhatta College.
‘Sense of rage’
She added, “A sense of rage has been building inside women over years, which is now being seen.”
Ms. Nirali, who hails from Gujarat, said safety concerns had made her parents hesitant about sending her to Delhi for higher education.
“From Gujarat, people go abroad, but women are not sent to Delhi University because of safety concerns. This fear is real and many women are facing it. The prevailing narrative is: ‘Don’t send your daughters to Delhi, they won’t make it back alive’. People believe in it and we have to change that,” she added.
The protesters also demanded democratically elected, functional internal complaints committees, safer campuses, better street lighting, improved public transport, and greater accountability in dealing with complaints of sexual harassment.
At a separate event, hundreds of women students participated in a consultation to draft a set of demands for stronger measures to ensure women’s safety. Several activists and lawyers participated in the meeting that was held in central Delhi under the banner of ‘Adhikar Abhi Nyay Abhi’.
(With inputs from PTI)
Published – October 02, 2026 01:14 am IST
