College of Engineering Trivandrum students took the stand as a bus stop bench was cut to 3 seats to prevent girls and boys from sitting together.

Students of both sexes from a nearby engineering college were prompted to sit on each other’s laps and post pictures of the same after a bus stop bench was reduced to three separate seats as an alleged moral policing measure to prevent girls and boys from sitting together. As a result, the city mayor on Thursday promised a modern, gender-neutral waiting facility there.

Arya S. Rajendran, the mayor of Thiruvananthapuram, paid a visit to the locale on Thursday after the College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET) students’ social media photos gained widespread attention. The manner in which the bench was divided into three seats was not only “wrong,” but also “unbecoming of a developed culture” like Kerala, the Mayor claimed in a Facebook post after visiting the region. Girls and boys are not prohibited from sitting together in our state, according to her, and those who still hold this belief are still relics of the past. She continued, “One can only feel sorry for individuals who do not realise how times have changed.

A responsive generation is a hope for the future, according to Rajendran, who praised the CET students for their stance and said that the local government supported them in this. She said that the bus stop was outdated, unlicensed, and without approval from the Public Works Department; as a result, the municipality plans to replace it with a new, gender-neutral one that has modern amenities.

In response to the incident, the CPI(Myouth )’s wing DYFI stated that individuals who attempt to impose antiquated moral principles and do not support gender justice are a threat to society. The DYFI state secretariat stated in a statement that such people need to understand that the world is changing and added that opposition to freedom of movement and personal liberty under the pretence of moral policing will not be tolerated. In order to dissuade males and girls from sitting together, it was said that the vandalism of the bus stop bench was insulting and inappropriate.