After 'sit-on-lap' protest, CET students to get new gender-neutral waiting shed
The waiting station was damaged by miscreants to apparently moral police the youngsters and stop the male and female students from sitting together.
The waiting station was damaged by miscreants to apparently moral police the youngsters and stop the male and female students from sitting together.
The waiting station was damaged by miscreants to apparently moral police the youngsters and stop the male and female students from sitting together.
Thiruvananthapuram: Mayor Arya Rajendran on Thursday visited the 'viral' Sreekaryam bus waiting area outside the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, and promised that a new gender-neutral waiting shed would be built there.
A photo of CET students sitting on each other's lap to protest against miscreants, who damaged the shed in an apparent attempt to stop boys and girls from hanging out there, had gone viral on Wednesday.
The students had alleged that the waiting shed was damaged as part of moral policing by the miscreants. The students noticed on Tuesday that the long steel bench in the waiting shed was cut short, making it almost impossible for two people to sit side by side. The seating was also reduced to three chairs kept at a distance. Apparently, students used to regularly face opposition and even abuses from locals when male and female students sat there and therefore, they weren't shocked by the antagonistic act.
The mayor said, “What I have understood is that the current waiting shed is an unauthorized construction. Therefore, we will need to dismantle it and build a new one. As of now, there are no complaints regarding the conduct of the students before any of the authorities and if anyone had issues, they should have done so, rather than resorting to damage the waiting shed. We are planning to construct a new, gender-neutral and modern bus stop here.”
The mayor also said she appreciates the students' decision to protest. “Student life is a period when we sit together, study and live our lives. It's not a modern approach to say that students should not sit together. If there is any mistake on their part, the authorities could have been contacted regarding the same.”
On seeing the damage done to the place, a group of second-year students decided to protest in a novel way. A few male and female students sat on each other's lap and clicked pictures, which they shared in their internal groups.
The 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.