Kerala High Court Questions Night Curfew For Women, Says Lock Men Up Instead. We’re Nodding Our Heads In Agreement!
This is music to our ears!
Growing up, most of us women had to live with a curfew put in place by our parents to keep us home and safe. But the same rules did not apply to the boys. While we had to be back home at a reasonable hour, there was no curfew for most boys. Even as teenagers, most of us weren’t allowed to go for sleepovers and whatnot. And sadly, even in 2022, the trend continues. If you look around you, most girls hostel’s have a curfew for girls which usually is between 8 to 10 pm whereas boys hostel is usually a lot more lenient. Much in line with this, recently, Kerala High Court called out the notification issued by the hostel authorities of the Hostel of Government Medical College in Kozhikode. The authorities barred female students from stepping out after 9.30 pm. The Kerala HC went on the slam the hostel for the rule and questioned the curfew.
A bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran of Kerala High Court was hearing a plea filed by female students of the Government Medical College Kozhikode against a notification issued by the Higher Education Department which barred female students from stepping out of the Hostel after 9.30 pm. Hearing the plea, Justice Ramachandran questioned why the authorities have a curfew only for female students and not for boys. He remarked that the boys should be locked up as they “create trouble”. He went on to add that the female students should be allowed to step out and the male students should have a curfew post 8 pm.
On the other hand, the State Government told the Kerala High Court that the curfew was put in place after taking into consideration the requests from the parents but the Court noted that while the authorities are obliged to make the campus a safe space, imposing a curfew on the female students living in the hostel will not help. In the previous hearing of the matter, the Court had observed that in today’s time any kind of gender discrimination, even if it is under the guise of protecting women, must be looked down upon as women are just as capable as men to take care and protect themselves and the authorities should aim at making them competent and capable rather than locking them inside the hostels to keep them safe. The Court also stated that the curfew would be justified if the authorities had a compelling reason for it.
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Well, TBH, we’re just glad someone finally said it. As women, we’ve all been making noise trying to highlight the fact that locking us in would serve no purpose because our gender simply isn’t safe be it outside or inside our homes due to the opposite gender and the problem isn’t women going out at night but rather men going out at night. It’s relief to know that Kerala High Court feels the same way about it.
