Two Decades After Her LSR Years, a Writer Recalls Unsafe Walk to PG

A former student of Lady Shriram College has recounted routine harassment she faced while walking between the college and her paying-guest accommodation in South Delhi more than two decades ago, drawing a link to present-day concerns about women's safety around the campus.

The writer, who joined LSR in 2003 after moving to Delhi from Shillong, said she could not secure a place in the college hostel and instead stayed at a PG run by a family in National Park, a locality behind the college. The kilometre-long walk between the two points, she said, was marked by eve-teasing and, on some occasions, public sexual misconduct.

She described a lack of visible policing and scrutiny along the route. Students, she recalled, would wait for their PG mates to finish classes so they could walk back together, and often took a rickshaw in the hope of protection. The PG owner and college teachers advised the young women to travel in groups and avoid moving alone.

The account comes as LSR has drawn attention after the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl at Aastha Kunj Park, close to the college. The institution suspended physical classes on September 23 and resumed offline teaching the next day. The college said the move was taken with student safety in mind and sought increased police patrolling around the campus, especially near the back gate and adjoining lanes and parks.

The writer questioned why the burden of an unsafe environment so often falls on women, listing the familiar instructions they receive: do not go there, do not walk alone, avoid the back gate, do not stay out late, and now, do not come to college.

The LSR Students' Union has argued that women's safety cannot be addressed merely through advisories asking women to be more careful. Students have flagged dark roads, inadequate police presence, a non-functional Pink Booth, unsafe pedestrian pathways and vulnerable stretches used by students.

The writer noted that shifting classes online for a day immediately after a serious incident may be a reasonable emergency precaution, but said such a step cannot become the definition of a safety strategy. The real response, she argued, must happen outside the laptop screen, with functioning patrols, proper lighting, mapped vulnerable routes between PGs, Metro stations and colleges, working CCTV cameras, reliable last-mile transport and operational emergency points.

Students have been asking for a location-specific safety audit, she added. The recent incident, in her view, should prompt authorities to examine the wider ecosystem around educational institutions rather than treat the crime as isolated. Safety, she wrote, has to travel with a woman from her PG to the Metro, from the Metro to college, and from college back home.