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A Shocking Report by TIMES NOW A must read article for all the enggneering student.

A TIMES NOW spy cam surveys the canteen of an engineering college in Chennai, where boys’ and girls’ area of eating and even walking are strictly separated by bold labels and metal bars

In 21st century India, if you thought we had done away with archaic ideas about men and women, thing again. TIMES NOW has found that certain colleges in Chennai have forced male and female students to keep out of each other’s way, so much so that students cannot even walk on the same roads. This is all ostensibly in the name of Tamil culture.

The outskirts of Chennai are home to scores of engineering colleges where discipline it appears is an obsession – sometimes even bordering on the ridiculous. Some rules even bar students from talking to the opposite sex.

TIMES NOW decided to take its cameras inside some of these campuses to expose the double standards.

What we found was not only shocking, but disturbing: Metal barricades had been put up in buses to ensure that girls sat away from boys. While girls sat in the front rows, boys sat behind them. We also found exclusive dining areas for members of the two sexes. Interestingly the ‘Non-Veg’ section was synonymous with the ‘Gents only’ areas.

Our first stop was at an engineering college around 30 kms away from Chennai. Here, we saw rows of boys and girls walking past us with not one student daring to glance at each other. As we continued our survey of the sprawling campus it was quite evident that even a casual chat with the opposite sex was objectionable.

In case a student is ‘tempted’ – men who are simply called the ‘Squad’ – hired by college managements to enforce discipline – will make sure you steer away from it.

TIMES NOW queries to students found these responses:

Question: Did you see the two girls who walked in front of us?

Answer: We are not even supposed to look at them, and even they are not supposed to. They are not supposed to walk through this path which is meant only for boys. We can’t go to the path meant for girls.

Grounded!

Here are some of the stringent rules in the book for these hapless students – talking to a person of the opposite sex could attract punishments with fines ranging from Rs 1000 to 1500, result in suspension or even a semester drop in some cases.

TIMES NOW’s next stop was another engineering college located next door and the story there was no different.

Question: Can’t you talk on campus?

Answer: If anyone saw, you will be in danger. They will make you do an OD

Question: What is an OD?

Answer: OD means that we have to stand outside office for 15 days to a month

In yet another college it seemed things were getting from bad to worse – here we even found staircases clearly labelled ‘Gents only’, and ‘Ladies only’. When we asked college authorities for an explanation, the Director said the rules were “only for for convenience”.

“This is for the purpose of safety. We expect girls to be more careful, especially when they climb up or climb down. The kind of dress they wear – churidars and things – might get stamped on and they might trip,” explained Vel R S College of Management Director, Dr Koteeswaran.

You may find this explanation bizzare, but for one teenageer in an engineering college, who had to forego a year for shaking hands with a girl, these are more than just an eccentric rule.

He recalls the ‘crime’: “I just shook hands with a girl. It was her birthday and I wished her. A bus driver saw it and complained to the director. They harassed me by asking many questions. I got suspended for one and a half months. My attendance obviously suffered, and they dropped me for a year. They were harassing my parents. I have seen my mom cry only twice before. This was third time.”

While such incidents are shocking – for the self proclaimed moral police it is a normal way of life that has to be preserved at all costs.

Says Jeppiar, chairman of the Jeppiar Educational Trust, “This is Tamil culture. This is education and they should concentrate only on that. If we are not strict then at least 40 percent will stray. We allow them to talk during studies, discussions and all that, but not outside the classrooms, at bus stands and other places. We are strict.”

What started off as a one-off case of imposing discipline in some colleges, has spread like wild fire across deemed universities in Chennai where rules are regressive and innocent students are at the receiving end.

With no uniform codes binding them, deemed universities are on a spree making their own laws.

The crux of the problem is that, though they have been criticised and many students have rebelled, no one with any real authority has ever said ‘enough is enough’.

(By Dhanya Rajendran)