Protests rock SRFTI campus for second day

Protests against the expulsion of 14 girl students from the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) continued for the second day today with students launching a sit-in before the institute director's office over the new segregation policy.
Under the new policy, the girls were asked to vacate the old common hostel, which also accommodated boys, and move to an accommodation on the campus of the premier institute.
The students, agitating under the Students Body Forum, vowed to continue the agitation by boycotting classes and stopping administrative work to press for immediate revocation of the expulsion order.
"We will continue our strike till the expulsion order is revoked and other demands like improving the hostel facilities are looked into," Students Body spokesman Akshay Gouri said.

The students, however, later in the day lifted the sit-in demonstration before the office of the director, Debamitra Mitra, and allowed her to leave saying they would demonstrate peacefully.
Mitra told PTI that some students sat in front of her room in SRFTI campus for over two-and-a-half hours.

"I said I was ready to sit through it, but won't take back the expulsion order. They (students) were asking for dialogue but attached demands for revocation of the expulsion order and putting a halt to segregation as conditions. I am always ready for dialogue but cannot negotiate on these two issues".

She said the HRD ministry has been intimated about the developments in the campus and the authorities would continue to hold classes.
Mitra said the students were fighting over an issue which was aimed to provide them better accommodation facilities and concentration on studies.
"Tell me why should boys and girls stay in the same hostel building, even if in different wings? Earlier, there was no additional hostel building at SRFTI, but with the coming up of a new one in 2015, why should they not avail the opportunity and shift when asked? What is the rationale? Since the students were not ready to listen to our pleas, we had to take the extreme step," she said.

The objective behind the segregation is to ensure the safety of girl students and the decision was taken by the governing and academic councils of the institute.
"It is our mandate to implement the decision. We cannot do anything about it," she said.
The institute director said earlier boys and girls had separate accommodations in the same block of an old hostel building.
After receiving the information and broadcasting ministry's approval in 2013, construction of a new building for girls was undertaken, Mitra said.
The institute was supposed to implement the decision, which was ratified in July by the general council, by the end of this academic session.

While the boys remain in the old hostel building, all but 14 girls were shifted to the newly constructed girls' hostel, she said.
Meanwhile, the students who boycotted classes in protest, denied that they had gheraoed the director and claimed they offered her water and that she was free to go to her chamber.
They alleged that Mitra was not answering any of their questions regarding various issues, including the living conditions on the campus.
Rupkatha Purakayastha, one of the expelled students, said, "We have sent a letter to the Union HRD ministry explaining our stand, but there has been no response so far".

The second year student of direction and script writing reasoned segregating boys and girls hit the basic premise of a film institute where students needed to discuss and share views about film projects with batch mates and professors.
Another expelled student said gender-based segregation blocked freedom of dignified life.
"Moreover of the 200 students in SRFTI, less than 20 per cent are girls. In our batch of 44 students, there are only 12 girls. How come there has to be a separate facility for so few girls?" she asked
Gouri demanded that the authorities explain why there had been a gradual decrease in financial allocation to film projects coupled with an overall fall in facilities for students despite increase in fees.