Rape-Murder: Residents flag ‘all that is wrong’ with govt-run girls’ hostel in city

A 30-year-old watchman of a women’s hostel in Marine Lines allegedly raped and strangulated an 18-year-old girl to death in her hostel room on Monday night before he died by suicide by jumping in front of a running train hours later.

The incident has shone the spotlight on the issue of safety of girls living in hostels in Mumbai. Issues such as unsafe structure, absence of CCTV surveillance, inadequate staff leading to hiring of contractual employees, lack of female staff are some of the major issues that have been plaguing hostels, but residents claimed that their concerns fell on deaf ears.

The Marine Lines hostel, where the girl was found dead, has a capacity of 450 inmates. The hostel residents were going to be shifted to a new building in Bandra in May as the existing structure, which is in shambles, is to undergo redevelopment. “The alternative arrangement was finalised but the shifting was pending as the new building did not have water and electricity connection for lack of occupancy certificate,” said Amar Ekad from Care of Public Safety Association (COPS), whose days-long hunger strike finally led to an alternative arrangement of shifting the students to a new building in Bandra. However, May passed but the residents continued staying in the old hostel building.

After the residents of the girls hostel in Marine Lines were shifted to Telang Memorial, one of the student residents said, “All this is happening now. Nobody paid heed to our problems when we were repeatedly flagging the issues before. There were many rooms whose locks were broken. The warden never bothered to take a round in the hostel to see if we were facing any issue. But now, she is suddenly showing a lot of concern and even higher-ups are paying us a visit.” The girl student elaborated how apart from the watchman, there would be other male workers from the mess as well as those involved in repair works, who would freely roam inside the hostel.

“A day before the incident, there was a knock on my door. I opened thinking it’s another hostel mate. But it was Prakash (the watchman) with two other men who wanted to use the room to cut a few wires hanging outside. I was in my home clothes and shut the door immediately,” said the girl, adding that it was impossible that the warden and other staff did not know about how over-friendly Prakash was with the girls.

“He had all the access whereas the warden and other female staff were unapproachable,” she said. Non-functional CCTV cameras or their absence in the hostel has now come to the fore after the incident. “Release of funds for the same has been a request pending with the government since 2019,” said Ekad adding that the issue persists with another girls hostel run by the state higher education department in Churchgate. “Both hostels have not received any development fund for all these years,” said Ekad.

The rape and murder occurred on the fourth floor of the Marine Lines hostel where the victim was staying alone as most students had left for their respective homes after the exams. “Nobody heard anything. In fact, nobody thought of questioning the watchman when he was going to the fourth floor as he was the one running errands for the girls for so many years,” said a former woman resident of the hostel. “Now everybody is asking why the girl was alone on the floor. How can one suspect anything like this will happen inside a hostel?”

Adity Ashravasti, a student activist, said, “Even though there is no rule or policy that girls hostels should have all-women staff, this is a demand by many student residents as well as their parents.”

A student from Telang hostel said, “Forget all-women staff, there’s a dearth of female staff. There is nobody among the security staff who is a woman. There is a warden and two of her administrative staff but on weekends and at nights, they would not be here. For any help, one would have to depend on the male staff from the security or the canteen workers.”

Rohit Dhale, another student activist, from Chattra Bharati, had an altogether different take. “Even if you bring all women-staff, there are men in all girls hostels who are there to run errands and carry out small tasks… The government needs to bring in strict regulation on how hostels should function and measures to ensure safety of girls staying in hostels,” said Dhale.

Another issue concerning the safety aspect in girls hostels is inadequate staff leading to outsourcing of jobs. Many girls have pointed out how the posts remain vacant and then the job is given to a contractual staff. “These contractual staff members either keep changing or are employed without proper paperwork. Without sensitisation, there is lack of empathy when regulations are imposed, making it difficult for girls,” said a third student from Worli hostel.

Adding to the list of problems is the issue of moral policing. A student from the hostel in Marine Lines said, “As the warden and other staff would comment on our clothes, the male security staff would look at us from head to toe and tell us we should keep a check on what we wear.” At Telang hostel, residents shared how canteen staff and security guards make obscene comments about the female residents. “The construction or repair workers at our hostel used the bathroom facilities used by the students,” said a resident.

A student from the South Mumbai hostel, staying away from home for almost five years now, said, “Young girls coming from the interiors of Maharashtra and other states are vulnerable when they arrive in the city. New girls shy away from raising their voice as they fear that they have to give up their plans of higher education if their family starts harbouring concerns about their safety.”

There are five government-run hostels in Mumbai, two run by the Higher and Technical Education Department and three by the Social Justice department — with a collective capacity of 1,170 girls.