Lock up men, let girls roam freely

A petition filed by women students of the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital against a notification that curbed their movements outside the college hostel has brought into focus the discrimination against women even in institutions of higher education.

The girls challenged a notification that barred them from stepping out of the hostel after 9.30 pm. The Kerala High Court did well to strike down the notification, recognising that it amounted to unequal treatment of equal citizens.

The court said: “Girl students have constitutional rights. Discriminatory restrictions cannot be imposed on them like this. Hostels are not prisons.” It directed all medical colleges in the state to implement the government’s directive, which had relaxed the timings notified by the college authorities. The arguments put forward by the authorities showed how wrong their ideas about women’s rights are.

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The college authorities contended that the petitioner-students were not in the majority on the campus. It was also argued that the students need sufficient sleep after the day’s work and sleepless nights and night life are not good for them. Another argument was that “adolescent brain is structurally and functionally vulnerable...to environmental stresses, risky behaviour, drug addiction…and unprotected sex.” It was also claimed that the “development and maturation of prefrontal cortex is fully accomplished only at the age of 25 years.”

The authorities did not consider it right to allow students who are below that age free movement at night. However, the question whether these arguments are not valid for boys, too, did not seem to have arisen in the minds of the top management of the college. That was what the girls also asked.

The court agreed with them and put the matter in the right perspective: “Our children…cannot be locked up on the grounds of offering them protection” and it is the duty of society to make the streets and public spaces safe for them. The requirements of security have to be met without boxing in girls. The court also said, though perhaps only to show up the irony: “Lock up men because they create trouble. Let ladies walk free.”

Curbs on movement of girls are common in other states and other institutions also. Students of Delhi University had protested against night curfew some years ago. There should not be any discrimination on the basis of gender, just as there should be none on the basis of race or religion. The idea that women’s security should be ensured by restricting and monitoring their movements is a patriarchal notion. It hinders the development of students as free citizens. The court did well to make the issues clear, and it should serve as a guideline for other places where similar issues exist.