The ‘Break the Curfew’ movement of the students of the College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram (CET), demanding extension of the closing time of women’s hostel, is back in the limelight with the students protesting over the recent decision of the management to cut down library timings.
Last week, the management changed the closing time of the college library from 8 p.m. to 5 p.m. On Wednesday, hundreds of students gathered in the library as a mark of protest against the move. They view the sudden change in the library timings as yet another attempt by the management to weaken the ‘Break the Curfew’ campaign.
The college management’s stand is that the government colleges are provided funds to run the library only till 5 p.m. and that the college has to foot the rest of the wages bill for the library staff.
“The Principal says that there has been an audit objection regarding the payment of extra allowance for library staff who stay till 8 p.m. There has been no such audit objections in all these years. In Wednesday’s staff council meeting, the Principal told us that a letter has been sent to the government regarding the timing. The staff at the library have agreed to work till 8 p.m. for the next two weeks. After that, everything depends on the Principal’s decision,” says a student who took part in the agitation.
The students started the ‘Break the Curfew’ protest earlier this year, highlighting the ‘blatant inequality’ in having a deadline only for the women’s hostel. With the library functioning till 8 p.m. and the computer lab open till 9 p.m., they questioned the logic in asking just the girl students to be present in the hostel before 6.30 p.m.
The hostellers, who are all from other districts, have found the deadlines difficult to meet when they travel to their hometowns. When the authorities raised the issue of girls’ security to justify their stand, they pointed out that there was no deadline for the students of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, located on the same campus. The issue of the curfew is yet to be resolved.
