How a beautiful picture of Kerala engineering students unseated moral policing

Students of the College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET) have given, what they believe to be, a fitting reply to moral policing.

On Tuesday evening students of CET found something unusual in a bus waiting shed outside the college campus that is frequented by students for chit-chat.

To their surprise, someone had cut short the long steel bench in the waiting shed, making it almost impossible for two people to sit side by side. The seating was now reduced to three chairs kept at a distance.

Why? "Students regularly face opposition and even abuses from locals when male and female students sit there," said Fabi KP, vice-chairperson, CET college union.

So even though it appeared absurd, the students weren't shocked by the antagonistic act.

That was when a group of second-year students decided to protest albeit in a novel way. A bunch of male and female students sat on eachothers' laps and clicked pictures, which they shared in their internal groups.

The beautiful snaps of a group of friends hanging out in a local bus stop soon followed into WhatsApp statuses and social media posts for the simple reason that it was a bold act of defiance. In no time, the image went viral. Soon, several other students joined their collegemates and clicked pictures at the waiting shed.

"We never expected it to go viral," said Arya, one of the protesters. "That the picture has been shared widely shows the acceptance for our simple protest. It also reflects on how the general public understood our position. So far we have only received positive responses," said Arya.

 

Battle against night curfew
CET is no stranger to fighting 'injustice' as a few years ago, a group of students launched a protest against the night curfew in college hostels, and won.

Thanks to their three-month 'Azadi' movement that was launched to protest the 6.30 pm deadline for female students, the government was forced to issue a circular revising the timing to 9.30 pm.