Kerala: Lapping up opportunity to shun moral policing at bus stand

Pic/Twitter@Im_JEBIN

A bus stop bench, which was reduced to three separate seats as an alleged moral policing measure to prevent girls and boys from sitting tog-ether, prompted students from a nearby engineering college to sit on each other's laps. The city mayor on Thursday promised a modern gender-neutral waiting facility there.

Trivandrum Mayor Arya S Rajendran visited the area on Thursday after the photos posted on social media by the students of College of Engineering Trivandrum went viral. In a Facebook post, she said the manner in which the bench was cut into three seats was not only "inappropriate", but also "unbecoming of a progressive society" like that of Kerala.

She said there is no ban on girls and boys sitting together in our state and those who still believe there should be such a prohibition are still living in ancient times. "One can only sympathise with those who do not understand that times have changed," she added. Appreciating the stand taken by the CET students, Rajendran said a responsive generation is the hope for the future and the local authorities were with the students in the matter.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever