Who’ll snoop on professors?

MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 24: After having accepted the inevitability of the ban on girl students visiting their male professors' houses, college pri...

MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 24: After having accepted the inevitability of the ban on girl students visiting their male professors’ houses, college principals have only one question – who will snoop on the professors?

“As a step to prevent cases of sexual harassment, it’s fine. But, how does one ensure that students stop going to the houses of their teachers?” asks Principal M G Shirahatti of Lala Lajpatrai College at Haji Ali. Shirahatti, who is also the president of the Association of Non-Government Colleges (ANGC), would be soon writing to the government seeking details on what action could be taken against errant teachers. “And unless we are provided with the services of state CID, there is no way we will know even if a teacher was breaking the rule,” he added in a lighter vein.

Principal D B Kadam of Bhavan’s College, Andheri is sure the ban would end up like many others that preceded it – just another point in the rule book. He says sometime back the Education Department had banned professors and lecturersfrom taking tuitions.

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“What happened of it?” he asks, and adds that “in Mumbai students generally interact with teachers in the campus. But, in mofussil areas the students and teachers often meet outside.”

Students led by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the National Students Union of India, on the other hand, are strongly opposed to the ban. “We will be taking a delegation to the minister of higher and technical education, Datta Rane, to question the logic behind this rule. Many students visit their teachers’ residences to seek their advice. Sometimes these are just courtesy calls. This in no way tarnishes the student-teacher relationship,” says the ABVP general secretary, Dhiraj Borikar.

To Asif Khan, a member of NSUI, the ban is just an eyewash. “Instead of taking action against the guilty, the state is merely adding to its paperwork by issuing such fantastic bans which can never be implemented. We will challenge the rule after the elections are over,” he saysThough DattaRane was not available for comment, the minister for state for education, Anil Deshmukh, reasoned: “Last year we came across several cases of sexual misconduct involving teachers. A few cases were reported from the Kalina staff quarters of Mumbai University and one case from the Nagpur’s Institute of Science. We feel that the ban will act as a deterrent.”

However, post-ban college girls are not feeling any safer. “The government can stop the teachers from inviting girls over, but can they stop them from letching at us when we attend their lectures,” asked a degree college student of a prominent south Mumbai college.