By Sharanya Gopinathan
What the hell has happened to principals in Kerala?
Last month we were talking about television chef turned Kerala Law Academy principal Lekshmi Nair, who was accused of using casteist slurs and being abusive to students. Now, The News Minute reports that the principal of Upasana College of Nursing in Kollam, a Ms. Jessykutty, has also been accused of using casteist slurs, and has further decreed that the women are not allowed to close their doors while changing. Students of the college have been on strike for several days now, and the college has been closed for a week.
Jessykutty’s alleged reasoning for banning closed doors, not that it provides any clarity on anything, is that the girls are closing their doors to secretly use mobile phones (um, if true, so what?) and because they are homosexual (um, if true, so what?). The students imply to The News Minute that she’s all kinds of sadist: she also frequently reads from students’ diaries out loud in front of rooms full of students.
The students, while taking their cues from the students of Kerala Law Academy who successfully removed their principal by going on strike, say that they’re fairly sure their own strike won’t amount to much, because their college is owned by the super-influential and obscenely wealthy Ravi Pillai. Several of the students who joined the protest have been asked to leave the hostel.
So, a quick round up just off the top of my head. In Telangana social welfare hostels, women shouldn’t be married. In NIT Calicut, women shouldn’t “roam around” with male students and if they’re caught, the women get punished.In JNU, women are requested not to vomit in the hostel. And now, in Upasana College of Nursing, women shouldn’t close their doors while changing, use mobile phones or be homosexual. Great.
Photo courtesy Jennifer Aitkins via Flickr by CC 2.0