Ambika Sridhar, Christ University, Bangalore As a student, I feel that our phones play a very crucial role in our lives… Of course we all use apps such as Whatsapp and Facebook from our phones, but it should not be forgotten that we also use various other apps such as Bookmyshow, Google Maps, Zomato, Shazam, etc for various purposes, making life more convenient… I don’t think banning phones on campus will bring a drastic change to the number of rape cases… What would bring a change to the number of rape cases is educating the people at school level itself with regard to respect for women, increase in security, and speedy justice along with harsher punishments for pending cases.
Adharsh Raghavan, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad The college student is mature enough to handle his/her own affairs, and it becomes inevitable, after a point of time to trust him/her to be responsible. I believe that banning cell phones is not going to change things drastically unless there is a major change in the way women are regarded in the society. Also, there are other more serious reasons why crimes against women happen (for instance, many crimes, it is known, happen as a result of poor judgment and increased aggression caused by the inebriated state in which the perpetrator is). Cell phones or not, it all ultimately boils down to physical security.
Sarayu Murali, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad The mobile phone is more of a necessity than a luxury… Mobile phones today are like remote encyclopedias… Cell phones ensure that parents and friends are just a dial away. In emergencies like accidents and the need for blood donors, they play a vital role.
However, students using them need to know their limits. In my opinion, lack of proper knowledge, especially among school-going students is misguiding the youngsters into spreading malicious and obscene information. Apart from personality development and sex education, awareness programmes can be held to ensure the safety of women and the pros and cons of using cell phones should be lucidly elaborated.
Malavi Sengupta, IIT Bombay I think that college students would keel over and die if deprived of their cell phones. Yes, we do talk and hang out with our peers in real life, but a large part of our social lives is now online: we message close friends who we don’t see regularly, or we keep up with everyone by looking at their photos and activities. This is quite important to us, as many of us have friends in other cities, and also we can glean a lot of information from comments, likes, etc. We also use the Internet to look up information we need and GPS to find places.
Saswati Ganguly, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata The staggering number of reports of violence against women is a matter of serious concern not for women alone but for the entire society. The recent proposal of banning the usage of mobile phones by youths is another example of ‘not so rare’ tendency of drawing conclusions and giving solutions without a proper logical basis.
This perspective stems from the same social psychology where dressing properly and staying away from night clubs are suggested as remedies to sexual violence.
In a society where victims are punished for violence inflicted on them, this is another attempt of diverting the focus from a very deep-rooted problem which needs to be addressed and redressed.
