Kerala: Engineering students stage 'laptop' protest against moral policing

After the locals resized the single large seat into three separate ones to prevent boys and girls sit together, the students staged a unique protest by doing a photo shoot with the girls sitting in the boys' laps with the caption '"You have a problem with us sitting together, but sitting on the lap will not be a problem, they said with a tinge of sarcasm."

Thiruvananthapuram: A photoshoot of students of CET Engineering College inside a bus stop where girls were seen sitting on the laps of the boys to protest against the moral policing of the local Residents' Association has become a hot topic for discussion in Kerala. The members of the Residents Association, led by its president and BJP state committee member Cheruvakkal Jayan had cut down a single-long seat into three single seats, to prevent boys and girls from sitting together.

The college students decided to react to this moral policing and did a photo shoot, with the tagline 'You have a problem with us in sitting together, but sitting on the lap will not be a problem no?", which has been lapped up by social media. Many persons come in support of the photoshoot and are against the moral policing of the Residents Association members. When ETV Bharat spoke to the students, they said students have been harassed by the local public and always tried to give them moral lessons. One student said that even the shopkeepers used to order the girl students to go back to their hostel during the nighttime and harass them with lewd comments.

The Residents Association president said that the local public was troubled by the 'conduct' of the students. He even went to the extent of saying that girls and boys used to lie down on the seating bench at the bus stop. He refused to accept their action as moral policing and even gave a strange reason that the seat has been resized into three single seats to ensure social distancing as part of Covid protocol.

DYFI, CPM's youth wing has also strongly reacted against the incident and has said that they will not allow anyone to impose such old-fashioned moral concepts. They said gender equality and gender-neutral spaces are not a danger to society. Meanwhile, Tiruvananthapuram Mayor Arya Rajendran, who visited the controversial spot, said that Thiruvananthapuram Corporation will demolish the existing bus stop and will rebuild a gender-neutral bus stop. If moral policing continues even after that, strong police action would be initiated against such people. She had also posted a write-up on her social media page supporting the students.