Malik rings alarm on violence against women

Patna: Governor Satya Pal Malik, who is upset with the spate of rape and eve-teasing incidents, on Thursday exhorted society to accord respect to women.

He said he was pained by violence and discrimination of women and the discriminatory mentality has to be fought and changed with determination.

Speaking at the Chhatra Samvad function organised by the Patna University Students’ Union (Pusu) at SK Memorial hall, Malik said: “Society, especially male students, should have love and respect for women. A society with a discriminatory mentality cannot progress.”

Malik, a student leader from Meerut University who participated in Jayaprakash Narayan’s total revolution, said: “I have asked vice-chancellors to upgrade facilities for girl students on their campuses. Affiliations of those colleges which do not have separate common room and urinals for girls will not be renewed.”

Earlier, Raj Bhavan had issued directives to all universities to have separate urinals facilities and common rooms for girls, failing which affiliations of the colleges will not be renewed from next academic session. Sources said that many colleges in rural areas lack these facilities because of which attendance was dipping and girl students were also dropping out of colleges.

Concerned about girl safety after a series of eve-teasing and rape incidents in the state in the past few months, the governor, who is also chancellor of universities, had asked the girls to complain directly to Raj Bhavan. Malik said: “If any girl faces molestation or eve-teasing on the campus she should immediately call up Raj Bhavan. The chancellor’s office will create awareness at colleges and universities in this connection.”

A woman and her daughter were sexually harassed by nearly a dozen youths in Gaya on Wednesday night. On Monday, a video showing a group of men molesting a 19-year-old girl in Nalanda district had gone viral. The Nalanda incident is the fourth such clip to surface in the past one-and-a-half-months in districts under the Patna police’s jurisdiction.

At the packed S.K. Memorial hall function, attended by deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Patna University vice-chancellor Rash Bihari Prasad Singh, Pusu president Divyanshu Bhardwaj, Pusu vice-president Yoshita Patwardhan and others, the chancellor showed his disapproval about poor presence of girls at the Chhatra Samvad. There were less than 100 girl students at the hall, which has a capacity to accommodate nearly 2,000. He said girls had shown their potential as in recent universities’ convocations the maximum number of topper students were girls.

Courtesy: The Telegraph