Kerala students protest by sitting on each other’s lap at bus stand. [Twitter@rohithkannan]
Thiruvananthapuram: The city Corporation demolished the controversial bus shelter near the engineering college, Chavadimukku after the students protested by sitting on each other’s lap at the bus stand with separate seating for boys and girls.
A bus stop bench in Thiruvananthapuram was divided into three separate seats by locals as an alleged moral policing measure to prevent girls and boys from sitting together, news agency PTI reported.
In a move to shun shallow mentality, students from the College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET) sat on each other’s lap and made the pictures of the same viral on social media. Protesting Students alleged that they were facing moral policing on the part of some local people.
However, the residents, denied that the seats were purposefully divided into three to discourage the students from sitting together. According to them, the bench was changed into three chairs as part of the renovation of the crumbling building and in accordance with COVID-19 guidelines to maintain social distance.
Thiruvananthapuram city Mayor Arya S Rajendran visited the students and appreciated the stand taken by them and said that the residents association’s construction was illegal and the discrimination towards students is unacceptable.
City Mayor Rajendran told ANI, that the construction of a new one for all genders bus shelter will begin shortly and the design of the bus shelter is in the final stage as soon as it gets ready, the work will be finished in two weeks.
“The construction of a new gender-neutral bus shelter will start soon. The design of the bus shelter is in the final stage and once it is completed, the work will be finished in two-weeks time,” said Thiruvananthapuram city Mayor Arya S Rajendran.
With inputs from agencies
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