Restricted access and in times : the current system requires a rethink

As per current institute policy, access to public places like sports complex, courts and classroom complex is restricted from 9:45 PM in the night to the next morning. Furthermore, students are expected to be in their hostel rooms by 11:00. The institute's rationale behind this is easy, it is for the safety of the students. An under construction campus entails the presence of outside elements like construction workers, which can pose a security risk especially at night.

While this concern is a valid one, some students believe with some planning and deliberation these risks can be widely mitigated. Given the small size of the campus, it's relatively easy to have sufficient guards and cover public areas with cameras to make them more secure. The fact that these areas are clustered (sports complex and courts are together, while labs and classroom complex are opposite) means there is less area and access pathways to secure. Then there’s the fact that most times these areas won’t be accessed by just one student, and with a group of students together the risk is reduced even further.

Now would be a good time to discuss why students actually need access to these facilities. Classes and labs till 6 mean students have a small time window to fit in any sort of collaborative work, be it academic, co curricular, competitions or sports, all after a day full of classes. Students are thus forced to miss out on activities they want to do. Clubs, committees, teams all suffer as a consequence, as clashing schedules mean someone always has to lose. Such an artificial constraint on what all a student can do should not exist in an institute where students are supposed to grow and develop in all facets.

This is especially an issue when it comes to events and competitions. The institute does provide permissions for special use cases, as in allowing late practices a few days prior to Inter IIT meets, but that’s not enough when you are competing against people who have no such constraints on them. Most other IIT’s do not have hostel curfew timings for students, and allow access to some common workplaces throughout the night. Moreover, for any other purposes, like a personal project few students are working on, the process of getting such permissions is not an easy one. For instance, if a woman enters her hostel past curfew she has to fill a form the next day with a valid reason, then go to the temporary campus to get it certified by the warden and Dean. Such procedures are more stringent for women, and that’s not right. Having to go through such convoluted procedures helps no one, and simplifying it would be a good starting point in addressing student concerns.

There is, however, another practice which has come about due to the above, and one I feel is overlooked. Lack of time and restricted access to common places result in activities like team meetings or project work often shifting to hostels. Since men are the majority in many such groups, men’s hostel becomes the place where all these things happen. As a consequence, women are often, without anyone even realizing, cut out from the decision-making process even though they are a part of said group. As teams shift functioning to hostels, decision making groups become more and more male dominated, which perpetuates said cycle as at times it’s easier to work from the comfort of hostel rooms. This is not a solo observation, as in a limited survey conducted, some students did identify lack of access to common places and in times being an issue when it comes to collaborating with the opposite gender..

That’s not all. The above practice also means the male counterpart will often have more experience and say in their groups work, which gives him a competitive advantage when it comes to competing for higher positions. The data corresponds to this, with almost all secretaries and committee heads in history being male. Of course, blaming the above policies to be the only reason as to why the above is true would be a very shallow analysis of the larger problem of women representation, and one I do not support. However, one cannot argue that the above does not play a part in it. This correlation between in times and restricted access resulting in male hostels becoming decision blocks and lack of women participation is also something that had been observed by student leaders of other IIT’s*, who have since taken measures to address the same.

It's time that the institute had another look at these policies. The concerns above are valid and need to be addressed. A healthy debate and discussion on these policies is required, where the institute can address these concerns and work with students to find a new solution. It’s not going to be easy, but it is needed.

* as discussed during Student Leadership Conclave 2021 conducted by IIT Gandhinagar