College won’t let female students lock their doors for fear of lesbian sex
A college is reportedly trying to stop its female students from having sex with each other by barring them from locking their doors, even when changing.
Upasana College of Nursing, in southern India, has also banned the use of mobiles on campus or the internet in the library, as authorities are worried about students watching porn.
In response, the students – most of whom are female – have staged a protest outside the college campus which has run since last Friday.
Homosexuality is still illegal in India, with hundreds arrested in 2015 under the Colonial era anti-gay law.
Last week, India’s royal prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, who came out as gay in 2007 on the Oprah Winfrey Show, called for the country to decriminalise homosexuality.
Students allege that officials have been harassing students for months with rules intended to discriminate against those in the lower castes of India’s hierarchical social system.
They have been calling for the resignation of the college head, Mrs Jessykutty, who they accuse of insulting them with caste-based slurs, invading their privacy and handing out harsh fines.
They also allege that on occasion, the principal takes students’ personal diaries and reads them out loud to the rest of the class.
“Girls in the hostel have been instructed not to lock their doors, even while changing clothes,” fourth-year student Veena V S told Indian news site The News Minute.
“The principal says we are closing rooms to secretly use mobile phones or because we are homosexuals. We have been told to just keep a chair near the door, but we can’t close it.”
A second-year student, Midhun Madhu, said she had seen the principal try to dissuade members of lower castes from protesting the rules as they would face more extreme punishments.
