After a year-long demand, the curfew that existed for female students at the Government Law College in Thiruvananthapuram has been lifted. Director of College Education, Haritha V Kumar issued the order for lifting the curfew on Monday.
Earlier, the college and the hostel authorities always reacted to the demand with the question, "What female students would do outside after 5.30"?
The female students were allowed to enter the college hostel till 5.30pm while they had access to the campus library till 4pm only. The male students live outside the University as they don't have hostel facility for men inside the campus.
They were also allowed access to the library till 4pm only. The reason cited for this was that the evening students use the library after 5pm.
The women representatives of the college Union had been raising the demand for a year. "They had raised it in different platforms, but it was always rejected with the question as to what female students would do after 5.30”, Anjali Anilkumar, a third year student tells TNM.
The students however were not ready to step back. College Union Vice Chairperson Ammu V Nair, Priyanka Roy, Arka Nandini, Tincy Maria Scaria, Arya Rafi Rohit, to name a few students, stood at the forefront of the cause.
The success also owes in part to efforts of the students of College of Engineering (CET) Thiruvananthapuram, who after several months recently managed to gain a government order to lift the curfew that existed for women.
At CET also, the college and hostel authorities tried to belittle the cause.
"Yes, it was the students of CET who informed us that we can meet the Director of College Education with the demand. Though we have been raising the demand for a year, we were not aware of the other options. They provided the details and it was their success that triggered our fight too. The SFI which runs the College Union stood with us. Slowly we were able to gain the support of more and more students," Anjali adds.
When the students met the director on Monday with the complaint, she was surprised on hearing that the curfew still exists and immediately issued the order.
The students were particular that the order should be put on the notice board since the college does not have the practice of doing it so that the students could know about their rights.