The Married Women Issue In Residential Women's Colleges

Are married girl students a source of distraction for unmarried girl students in educational institution hostels? The Telangana government seems to think so as is evident from a notification issued on Tuesday by the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Institutions Society (TSWREIS) inviting applications for admission to the Social Welfare Residential Women's Colleges for the academic year 2017-18.

The notification specifically mentioned that the admissions for B.A., B.Com. and B.Sc. courses in the colleges were meant for unmarried women candidates only.

There are 23 such residential colleges with an intake of 280 students in each college per year.

What is more, the officials even justified calling for applications from unmarried girls only in the residential colleges, saying it was mainly to prevent them from getting distracted due to the presence of married students.

They said that the husbands of married girl students tended to visit their wives in the colleges, and this would distract the attention of the unmarried students.

It is interesting that this mindset of the Telangana authorities has come to the fore just a few days ahead of International Women's Day on March 8.

Activists have condemned the authorities for such a policy, and appealed to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to immediately have the notification withdrawn and ensure admission to the residential women's colleges even to married women students.