Akash Al Mamun, CoU

Although almost two decades have been passed since the establishment of Comilla University (CoU), the condition of female students continues to face various deprivations and crises. There are no common rooms and adequate housing facilities for female students on campus.

Moreover, many female students have to take long breaks between class exams as they come from their homes and private hostels. Female students, teachers, and employees have expressed their anger over the issue.

According to the latest information from the academic wing of the university's registrar's office, about 45 percent of the total students are female. However, the specialized services of the university administration for female students are inadequate. The university's two halls (Nawab Faizunnesa Chowdhurani Hall and Suniti-Shanti Hall) have accommodation facilities for only 18 percent of the students. Due to the shortage of seats, two students are together occupying several seats in the hall. Which is 25 percent of the total female students.

According to information provided by the hall provosts, Nawab Faizunnesa Chowdhurani Hall has 197 seats but 300 students. On the other hand, Suniti-Shanti Hall has 256 seats but 384 students.

Additionally, none of the university's administrative buildings or other faculty buildings have common room facilities. Although the university has a central mosque, there is no designated place for prayer for female students interested in religious practice.

Of the six faculties of the university, only the Faculty of Science, Engineering and BBA has prayer rooms for women. But there is no facility for ablution there either. Even in the administrative building, the university authorities have not been able to provide any place for the women officials and employees to offer prayers.

Again, although many teachers, students, officials and employees come to the university with breastfed babies, there is no breastfeeding corner for them either. As a result, female members have to face embarrassing situations.

Research has shown that Jagannath University, a contemporary of Comilla University, has common rooms for girls. Moreover, other universities in the country have common room facilities for girls.

Meanwhile, despite the university having several senior female teachers, students, officials and employees come to the universities with little babies, there is no day care centre to look after their childs.

The female stakeholders of CoU complain that they cannot perform their duties properly due to scarcity of a place of breastfeeding corner and child day care centre.

Sumaiya Jahan Al Awi, a 14th batch student of the Department of Archaeology, said, "Girls need a special room or common room. It is often seen that after one class ends, they have to stand outside on the balcony or stairs for the next class. This is very painful. There are also some students who have to come to class with small children. In that case, even if it is to stand outside or to feed the child, a special room is needed, where they can safely do all the activities and stay for some time. If a daycare room can be provided for children, then many mother students will benefit."

A female officer, who asked not to be named, expressed her anger and said, "We don't have a place to pray. If we had a separate room, we wouldn't have faced this problem. We have informed the administration about this problem several times. But there is no solution."

Dr. Jannatul Ferdous, Associate Professor of the Department of Public Administration, said, "Our university does not have any common room, it is very important to have one. Having to stay on campus for a long time, in this case, it becomes difficult for girls to go to the washroom and maintain hygiene. There are also some feminine matters that require privacy. It is important to keep sanitary napkins in the common room. The university is taking up the challenge and moving forward in many directions, working on big mega projects. It is important to shed light on the problems of girls on a similar urgent basis and solve the problem."

Director of the Student Counseling and Guidance Office, Professor Dr. Abdullah Al Mahbub said, "There is a common room in the Science Faculty, but not in the BBA or Social Science Faculty. In fact, there is a shortage of sufficient classrooms or teachers' sitting rooms. This shortage will not be completely resolved until campus is moved to the new campus, but they are still an urgent matter; they need to be here. We have tried to utilise the most of the rooms. Now the way to solve this shortage is to move to the new campus. Then everything will be possible. The design of each building in the new campus includes common rooms for boys and girls, seminars, libraries, everything. Currently, prayer arrangements have been made in some places, but due to the shortage of rooms, it has not been possible to