Kerala which has witnessed many progressive initiatives, including the recent row over supporting entry of women of all ages to the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple, witnessed a successful stir by girl students of a government-run prestigious engineering college in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram aimed at easing the restrictions imposed on graduates and post-graduate students from entering the hostel after 6.30 p.m.
Hundreds of girl students of the girls' hostel of the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram (CET), spent the whole of Wednesday night in the college campus shouting slogans. They even alleged gender discrimination citing that inmates of the boys’ hostel were allowed to be out till 9.30 pm, while for girls the limit was set at 6.30 p.m. As they went ahead with the no-compromise strike, the Kerala Government on Thursday issued a directive to extend the time limit for girls hostel also to 9.30 p.m.
The college principal Mr Jiji C V said that it was for the government to take a decision on the matter. Now the government issued a direction extending the time limit for the girls’ hotel inmates to return to the hostel from 6.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m, he told DH.
CET is one of the most sought after engineering colleges in Kerala. The time limit of 6.30 p.m. at the girls' hostel was in place over the last many decades. Though similar stirs were staged several times earlier, those did not succeed in lifting the restrictions as a section of parents were even in favour of the restriction.
The fresh stir came out in the open after a mass petition submitted to the government and college authorities signed by about 585 of the 700 odd hostel inmates yielded no response.
Over the last couple of days, a batch of girls returned to the hostel after 6.30 p.m. and did not oblige to the condition that they should state the reason for the delay. On Wednesday when more girls returned late, the hostel authorities did not allow them to enter without citing a reason. Subsequently, other girls also came out of the hostel and launched the stir at the college campus.
Amritha, one of the students who led the stir, said that they were forced to take the extreme step of midnight stir as their repeated pleas fell on deaf ears. "Restricting the time limit for girls to 6.30 p.m and allowing boys to be out till 9.30 p.m. amounted to gender discrimination. Such discrimination are there at many campuses and it has to be changed," she told DH.
Some students even alleged that the hostel authorities used to conduct 'moral quizzes' when girls returned late.
"Father of one girl even collapsed after the college authorities gave some misleading information," said a student.