Chennai Park Demands Marriage Certificate from Visitors

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Botanical Gardens want its visitors to a produce marriage certificate at the entrance. All this because the University authorities have failed to keep couples from indulging into PDA on their premises. We can’t blame the park authorities for feeling embarrassed and fed up with frisky hands and passionate embraces. But isn't demanding a marriage certificate taking it a bit too far?

Blame it on Bollywood, or lack of privacy 

Regional or Bollywood, cinema has normalised the idea of romance in public places since the 60s. Be its song-and-dance routines or running around the trees and flowers shaking in unison. I don’t even have a word for that weird motion, these are the age-old metaphors our film makers have used for kissing or copulation.

Whether fiction has inspired real life or vice versa, public place and couples seem to have a fling going on, of their own. Small cities or big, couples flock into gardens, zoos, amusement parks, beaches and every possible public place, to find a nook where they can get intimate. Not a surprise considering the high population density of our country.

The concern is justified

We can understand that the university park is intended to be used for scholarly purposes, or to showcase wonders of nature and agriculture to visitors. Most Indian parents will throw a fit if their child finds a couple in compromising position, while looking for a butterfly.

As per a college professor, the authorities had to resort to asking for a marriage certificate from visitors, because other measures failed.

"Fed-up with the couples using the park as their hiding and recreation area, the university has come up with this rule. We initially tried to put up rules and regulations such as seeking their ID proofs and asking details such as phone numbers. Despite all that, couples continued to behave inappropriately causing a lot of discomfort to other visitors. Students and families have also complained many times,"

Asking for a marriage certificate is not the solution to the problem

But the authorities can introduce strict fines if it is so concerned. They can install CCTV cameras and ensure strict patrolling.

That the park is for academic and research purposes, does not justify the university demanding marriage certificates from the visitors.

It is discriminatory to those who are in a live-in relationship, or single.

The couples too need to respect the sanctity of public places. Romance and passion are emotions best expressed in seclusion. No one likes public display of tongues down one another’s throat or flashes of pee-pees in parks. It is always embarrassing and uncomfortable when you are on the viewing side of the display.

Also Read :Fuss Over Jharkhand’s Kissing Contest is a Proof of our Dislike for PDA

Yamini Pustake Bhalerao is a writer with the SheThePeople team, in the Opinions section. The views expressed are the author’s own.