Banaras Hindu University women's rights protest

Last updated

Banaras Hindu University women's rights protest
DateSeptember 2017
Location

The Banaras Hindu University women's rights protest is a series of events beginning with a Banaras Hindu University student's September 2017 complaint that the university administration treated women unfairly.

Contents

Harassment incident

On 21 September 2017, a woman reported sexual harassment to the university. [1] She claimed that the university responded by blaming her. [1]

Protests

The next day, 22 September, students organized a protest against the university's treatment of women. [1]

The university's administration filed a First information report against hundreds of students and alleged outsiders for rioting, mischief indented arson, attempt to murder among other sections of Indian Penal Code. [2]

Police used laathi charge in an attempt to get protesters to disperse the protestors. [3] [4] Various protesters reported injuries. Alleged outsiders joined the students in stone-pelting. [5]

Large number of male students joined their female counterparts in protests and silent march against police violence. [6]

The protests in Benares triggered protests in Delhi. [7] [ better source needed ]

At the one year anniversary of the protest students organized another protest. [8] The protesters reported that an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad student group attacked them violently for protesting. [9]

Reactions

Chief Proctor of the university resigned taking moral responsibility. [10]

Prime Minister Modi discussed a response with the chief minister. [11]

Uttar Pradesh Governor called the incident sad. [5]

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath recommended better communication as a way to prevent future such protests, and sought a report from the Divisional commissioner. [12] [6]

A committee to look into the protest over an alleged harassment was set-up under Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary. [5]

ABVP and NSUI student groups staged demonstrations in New Delhi against police brutality in BHU. [11]

In May 2018, following-up on an inquiry report, the university administration debarred 11 students on charges of vandalism and assault. [13]

The Station House Officer (police station in-charge/SHO) of Lanka police station, the deputy police superintendent, and three additional city magistrates were transferred or removed. [11]

In view of intelligence reports that brutality on BHU students may spark protests in other universities and colleges, campuses were closed momentarily in the district. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad</span> RSS-affiliated Students Organisation

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) (transl.All India Students' Council) is a right-wing all India student organisation affiliated to the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandeep Pandey</span> Indian activist

Sandeep Pandey is an Indian social activist and the present General Secretary of the Socialist Party (India). He co-founded Asha for Education with Dr. Deepak Gupta and V.J.P Srivastava while working on his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught as a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, NALSAR University of Law and Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi.

Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is an Indian politician who is serving as Member of Parliament from Kaiserganj as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is the current president of the Wrestling Federation of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yogi Adityanath</span> 21st and current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh

Yogi Adityanath is an Indian Hindu monk and politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party who is serving as the 21st and current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh since 19 March 2017. He is the longest serving Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, who is currently running his tenure for over 6 years, surpassing Sampurnanand. He represents Gorakhpur Urban Assembly constituency in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly since 2022 and was member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council from 2017 to 2022. He is a former Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency, Uttar Pradesh from 1998 to 2017 before he resigned to become the Chief Minister. He resigned from the legislative council after being elected to the legislative assembly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manoj Sinha</span> 2nd Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir

Manoj Sinha is an Indian politician serving as the 2nd and the current Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. He served as the Minister of State for Communications and Minister of State for Railways in the Government of India. Sinha was elected as Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, representing Ghazipur for three terms from the Bharatiya Janata Party. Sinha was in the race for the post of UP Chief Minister after 2017 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mukhtar Ansari</span> Indian politician and gangster


Mukhtar Ansari is a convicted Indian gangster and politician from Uttar Pradesh. He has been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Mau constituency five times, including twice as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate. He is the relative of former Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari.

All India Students' Association (AISA) is a left wing student organisation in India. It describes itself as "the voice of the radical students' movement" and is affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation. The association was previously affiliated to the IPF. The association was founded in Allahabad on 9 August 1990 with the merger of several left wing students organisations across India. AISA have organisational presence in the states and union territories of Delhi, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura, etc. Nilasis Bose is the National President of AISA and Prasenjeet Kumar is it's National General Secretary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Students' Union of India</span> Indian students organization

The National Students' Union of India(NSUI) is student wing of the Indian National Congress (INC or Congress), was established on 9 April 1971. The organisation was founded by Indira Gandhi after merging the Kerala Students Union and the West Bengal State Chhatra Parishad to form a national students' organisation.

On 29 September 2008 three bombs exploded in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra of India killing 10 people and injuring 80. Two bombs went off in Malegaon, Maharashtra, which killed nine people while another blast in Modasa, Gujarat resulted in the death of one person.

Love jihad or Romeo jihad, is an Islamophobic conspiracy theory developed by proponents of the Hindutva ideology. The conspiracy theory purports that Muslim men target Hindu women for conversion to Islam by means such as seduction, feigning love, deception, kidnapping, and marriage, as part of a broader demographic "war" by Muslims against India, and an organised international conspiracy, for domination through demographic growth and replacement.

The Banaras Hindu University Students' Union generally abbreviated as BHU Students' Union or BHUSU, was the students' union of Banaras Hindu University. The Students' Union had been responsible for representing students, both within the University and externally for all academic, non-academic and student welfare purposes.

On 9 February 2016, some students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) held a protest on their campus against the capital punishment meted out to the 2001 Indian Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, and Kashmiri separatist Maqbool Bhat. The organizers of the event were former members of the Democratic Students' Union (DSU). The event was held despite the university administration withdrawing permission for the event shortly before it was due to begin, due to protests by members of the student union of ABVP. The event saw clashes between various student groups. A video was circulated by Indian news channel Zee news in which a small group of individuals, whom a later investigation described as outsiders to the university wearing masks, shouted "anti-India" slogans. The slogans were criticized by many individuals, including political leaders and students of JNU.

The Varanasi Metro is a light rail transit system proposed for the city of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. The proposed system consists of 2 corridors that span from BHEL to Banaras Hindu University (19.35 km) and Benia Bagh to Sarnath (9.885 km). The feasibility study of the project was done by RITES and was completed in June 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhim Army</span> Indian social organization

The Bhim Army, alternatively Bheem Army or the Bheem Army Bharat Ekta Mission is an Ambedkarite and Dalit rights organisation in India. It was founded by Satish Kumar, Vinay Ratan Singh and Chandra Shekhar Aazad in 2015. The organisation runs more than 350 free schools for Dalits and Bahujans in the districts of Saharanpur, Meerut, Shamli and Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh. The organisation is named after B. R. Ambedkar.

Kafeel Khan was a lecturer at the Department of Paediatrics, Baba Raghav Das Medical College, Gorakhpur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citizenship Amendment Act protests</span> 2019–2020 protests in India

The Citizenship Amendment Act (Bill) protests, also known as the CAA Protest, CAB Protest or CAA and NRC protests, occurred after the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was enacted by the Government of India on 12 December 2019. The move sparked a widespread national and overseas ongoing protests against the act and its associated proposals of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The protests first began in North-Eastern state of Assam and spread swiftly in other states such as Delhi, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, and Tripura on 4 December 2019. Protests broke out rapidly across the country, although the concerns of the protesters vary.

On 5 January 2020, more than 50 masked people armed with rods, sticks and acid attacked the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and injured more than 39 students and teachers. Many students received serious injuries. Professors who tried to intervene and protect the students, as well as ambulances carrying injured individuals, were attacked. Eyewitnesses stated that police within the campus did not intervene to stop the mob. After attacking residents of the university campus for three hours, the mob escaped; none of its members was arrested or detained. All 36 students who were injured and admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi (AIIMS) were discharged within 24 hours.

CAA protests in Uttar Pradesh was a protest that began in response to the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in both houses of Parliament on 11 December 2019. and the police intervention against students at Jamia Millia Islamia who were opposing law which gives priority to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians resident in India before 2014, but excludes Muslims, including minority sects. The student activists were also demanding complete roll back of CAA.

On 14 September 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped in Hathras district, Uttar Pradesh, India, by four upper caste men. She died two weeks later in a Delhi hospital.

The 2015 Dadri lynching refers to case of lynching in which a mob of villagers attacked the home of 52 year-old Mohammed Akhlaq, killing him, for suspicion of slaughtering a cow. The attack took place at night, on 28 September 2015 in Bisahda village, near Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, India. The mob consisting of local villagers, attacked Akhlaq's house with sticks, bricks and knives, saying that they suspected of him stealing and slaughtering a cow calf.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Mishra, Bishnu (2 October 2017). "Student Protests Have Challenged the Ideological Stagnation of BHU". The Wire (Indian web publication) .
  2. "What is the BHU protest? everything you need to know". The Indian Express. 25 September 2017.
  3. Akash, Kumar (25 September 2017). "BHU protest: From 'sexist' rules to unruly force and political mudslinging". Business Standard India.
  4. "BHU protest turns violent: Police lathicharge students protesting against victim shaming". The Indian Express. 24 September 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 "BHU protest: What really happened in Banaras Hindu University and why girls wanted to meet Vice Chancellor". The Financial Express. 25 September 2017.
  6. 1 2 "Why BHU is on the boil and what has brought hundreds of girls on warpath". India Today. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  7. Dikshit, Rajeev (25 September 2017). "Several students injured as BHU protest turns violent". The Times of India.
  8. "BHU Female Students Attacked on Anniversary of Sexual Harassment Protests". NewsClick. 24 September 2018.
  9. Mohan, Siddhant (24 September 2018). "On first anniversary of Banaras Hindu University protests, ABVP workers assault students, journalist". Scroll.in .
  10. "BHU chief proctor resigns, takes 'moral responsibility' for incidents of molestation, violence on campus". Hindustan Times. 27 September 2017. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "BHU violence: Heads roll as PM Modi speaks to CM Adityanath, committee set up to look into incident". www.hindustantimes.com. 25 September 2017. Archived from the original on 18 February 2018.
  12. "BHU students protests highlights: Narendra Modi 'unhappy' over incident, asks UP CM to act against guilty". Firstpost. 27 September 2017.
  13. Dua, Rohan (6 November 2018). "Students who led BHU protest debarred from future courses". The Times of India.