Cry freedom: Why generous timings for boys and early deadlines for girls?

Reinforcing a patriarchal social order that aims to confine and set limits on girls in the guise that they are intended for their own good

A small news item this week about Jamia Millia Islamia’s women students protesting about their hostel timings took me back to my own hostel days in the first year of college. That was 27 years ago. A miserable, miserable year that was. Solely for one reason: the hostel was a prison. Girls were required to be back by 6.30 pm, after which the gates would be locked and a roll call would follow.
 
The logic was straightforward — as straightforward as feudal logic goes. Out of their homes, away from their parents, the girls were the responsibility of the