Students in Ghaziabad college protest gender-based segregation

The students of an engineering college in Ghaziabad boycotted classes Monday to protest the director's order asking boys and girls to sit in separate rows in classes.

The students of Krishna Institute of Engineering and Technology (KIET) at Murad Nagar alleged that the college director Sharwan Mukharjee has ruled that male and female students would sit in separate rows and has banned conversation between boys and girls on the college premises.

No girl student is allowed to go outside the hostel after 6.00 p.m. while no male students are allowed to out of hostel after 8.00 p.m., said the students adding that they have been barred from joining other training courses outside the college. The students, however, were scared to reveal their identities.

The college administrator Umesh Sharma said the college students are to be kept in discipline. The university requires 75 percent attendance while students are not serious about attending classes. So to make them serious in studies the director has issued the rule about separate rows for girls and boys in the classes, he said.