Girls colleges: Required?

Today, 20 of the 70 colleges in Delhi University are women's colleges. This implies approximately 28.56% seats are reserved for women in Delhi University. Additively some courses in co-ed colleges are offered at 3-5% recession in cut-off for women. Women can apply to the remaining 50 colleges as well, since there isn't a single all-boys college in DU. St. Stephen's College was initially a men's college but became co-ed in 1950. Mail Today asked Delhi University: Isn't it about time that women's colleges followed Stephen's footsteps and turned co-ed too? This is what DU had to say…

Sakshi Kapoor who comes from a convent school feels awkward interacting with the opposite sex and would definitely prefer a co-ed college over a women's college to get over her inhibitions. Besides, she's very confident she'll manage getting through one with her aggregate. This self-assurance is shared by other girls too. The pass percentage of girls who appeared for CBSE class 12 examinations in 2008 was 85.44 while that of boys was 77.59. The question that arises is that do girls continue to feel challenged when it comes to competing against boys for pursuing education? Udit Khurana, 2nd year B.A. (Hons) Maths can't comprehend why. "Most girls make the cut-off with ease as they tend to perform much better than boys in the board exams" he comments. Arushi Chanana, doing Sociology Honours, from JMC thinks the situation reflects a gender bias. "Most of my male friends had to shift out of Delhi since Delhi University has co-ed colleges that are either nearly impossible to get through or not good enough to want to make it through. The ones who've stayed behind have had to compromise on their choice of course to get admitted to the reputed colleges", she shares. Even though Arushi sympathises with the opposite sex in this regard and thinks, ideally, women's colleges should turn co-ed, she fears the standards might come down. "Not a bad idea but it will be difficult to implement", says Della, Arushi's class-mate.

"Easier said than done", Anshika Joshi, a pass-out from Miranda suggests that the premier women's colleges should let be and first the experiment should be carried out with the average ones. Bulbul Maira, an aspirant, questions, "Why not simply introduce new colleges just for the boys"? Jagriti Gangopadhyay, Vice President Miranda thinks that women's colleges have just begun to find themselves and there's still a long way to go. "It is rather fortunate that they have a good standard. You can't blame women's colleges if they're doing well! I'd say it's easier to bring up the standards of existing co-ed colleges than to turn the women's colleges into co-ed". Surabhi Bahl points out to the sex ratio in co-ed colleges which favours boys, "There are 150 seats for boys and 53 seats for girls in SRCC; if LSR too becomes co-ed, where will the girls go?" Gauri Bhola, mother to two sons; one already in DU the other an aspirant, is severely against reservation of any kind whatsoever. "It isn't a child's fault if he or she is born a girl/boy, Hindu/Muslim/Christian, into whatever sect/caste/class/tribe. Reservations end up re-enforcing rather than reducing differences".

Mail Today asked if it is administratively possible to carry out the conversion. Dr. Shalini Anant, a counsellor in a women's college responded, "I don't think there's a need; if there was a requirement we'd have already gone ahead and made all efforts to make the provision possible". The urban-rural divide is still visible in terms of parents being comfortable sending their daughters to co-ed colleges others feel. Girls coming from smaller places are continuing further education only because they are in women's colleges. Veena Puri, Superintendent of exams, Bharati College, who has been associated with the college since its inception 36 years ago gives insight into the situation. "A certain percentage of parents still don't like to send their daughters to co-ed colleges and if we refuse to consider them, who does? It is also true that the freedom the girls feel does get affected if they go to a co-ed college". She feels the college will lose its essence if it turns co-ed; "the girl-boy interaction is just one overly politicised aspect of this debate".

Women's colleges were established in times when the segregation between men and women was extremely prominent. "30-40 years ago parents felt if their daughters mixed up with boys they'll get all sorts of wrong ideas. No doubt things have changed but parents whose daughters haven't been able to get through women's colleges still come and request us to take them in for they feel they are negatively influenced in co-ed environments. We tell them the girls wouldn't have any less number of male friends just by shifting to a women's college. Step onto North Campus and you'll realise how inter-connected the students of different colleges are. We actually encourage interaction with the opposite sex and allow our girls to compete with boys at various inter-collegiate events". As a Biology professor, Dr. K. Nirmala, Admission in-charge at Daulat Ram, feels a co-ed environment is naturally a healthier representation of society. She adds that "converting women's colleges into co-ed will definitely be a big leap and require a lot of policy changes. We do have these debates from time to time and the girls always speak in favour of DR turning co-ed but parents still prefer their girls in women's colleges".