In an interview, the Union Minister had advocated an early hostel curfew for girl students in the Capital to "protect" them from "hormonal outbursts"
Days after Union Minister Maneka Gandhi made a controversial statement advocating early hostel curfew to "protect" girls from "hormonal outbursts", scores of women students from several universities held a protest outside the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry on Wednesday and demanded a public apology from her.
Amid slogans like "hormonal outburst hokey rahega" and "lakshman rekha ki sarkar, nahi chalegi apki baar", protesters from Delhi University, along with those from Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia, gathered outside the WCD Ministry. Some of the protesters climbed the gates of the ministry even as a heavy police force was deployed at the venue.
On Monday, during a television interview, Maneka Gandhi had said, "When you are 16 or 17 you are also hormonally very challenged. So to protect you from your own hormonal outbursts, perhaps a lakshman rekha needs to be drawn. It really is for your own safety."
Reacting to the statement some students believed the minister should apologise. "It is so unfortunate that such a statement was made by our Women and Child Development Minister," said Shrishti, a Delhi University student. "We want her to come out and give a public apology for making such a statement," she added.
Condemning Gandhi's remarks that women's safety can't be ensured by "two Bihari gentlemen at gate with dandas (sticks)" the protesting students said "what the Minister had said was not just violative of constitutional rights of all women students, but also disrespectful of people coming from particular regions of the country."
"We have been struggling against hostel curfew hours for the last two years and such patriarchal and a classist statement by the minister is completely atrocious and unacceptable," said Devangana Kalita of Pinjra Tod, a campaign to ensure no gender-discriminatory accommodations for women students.
Pinjra Tod also wrote a letter to Gandhi demanding a public apology from her. "We demand an immediate and unconditional public apology from you. The least that your public apology will do is to give us reason to believe that you are reviewing your opinions," the letter read.
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