Couple Kissing In Delhi Metro: 6 Women’s Take On Normalising PDA

Public Display of Affection (PDA) has been the talk of the town several times. With more events of couples engaging in PDA inside the Delhi metro coming up, people started involving in the conversation of normalising it. It has become a common practice for fellow passengers to shoot photos or videos of it, circulate them on social media, and either joke about it or criticise the act.

Couple Kissing In Delhi Metro

Recently, a similar incident occurred and a picture of it surfaced online. In which, a young couple was sharing an intimate moment inside the Delhi Metro, their faces were not visible. From the look of the picture, it can be assumed that the couple might have been kissing. According to the caption, the incident seemed to have taken place on June 17 on the yellow line of the Delhi metro, which was heading towards HUDA city centre.

While most people start commenting with critical views on such incidents, judging and shaming the couple, this time a lot of comments and tweets have emerged in support of normalising public displays of affection. Finally, some sensible comments have emerged, and for once, the majority of netizens seem to be supportive of PDA.

Talking to SheThePeople about normalising PDA and keeping this Delhi metro incident in the forefront, Sruthi, an entrepreneur, said that PDA would make her uncomfortable, depending on the place she was in and the people she was surrounded by. However, she said, "I don’t get why people are making a huge fuss about it, though. This is hardly the worst thing that has happened in the Delhi metro or any public transport. We regularly come across cases of men visibly harassing women on public transport. People turn a blind eye to a non-consensual act like sexual harassment but fuss about something so normal as a couple sharing a consensual kiss."

Niveditha Sreenivasan, a corporate professional, said that she completely supports PDA but noted that there is a line. "I’m all in for PDA; hugging, kissing, holding hands, and leaning on the shoulder are all fine, but I wouldn’t call anything more than that, like making out, PDA."

"While I don’t mind basic public displays of affection like holding hands, leaning on the shoulder, hugging, or a kiss on the cheek and such, I wouldn’t support intimate acts that go beyond a limit," shared Dhivya Krishna, a Digital Marketer.

Snehal Mutha, a writer shared that she doesn’t mind PDA as long as it’s consensual. "However, if it's making people uncomfortable, then couples should read the room and behave accordingly. No one has the right to moral police anyone; if they don’t like what they are seeing, they should just stop seeing it then."

"PDA, as long as it’s consensual, is completely fine. There’s nothing wrong with sharing an intimate moment as long as couples don’t cross the limit," said Lavanya Periyasamy, an IT professional." "Couples should also know where to draw the line and act with basic decency. While PDA like hugging and kissing is okay, making out or something more obscene isn’t morally acceptable public behaviour," she added.

"It’s natural for couples to want to display affection in public. Many of us like stealing little hugs, kisses, and touches in public because that’s thrilling and romantic," said Subashini Sreeram, an IT Professional. As long as it’s consensual, society needs to normalise PDA because one look at our culture and heritage will point out that intimacy is very much a part of our culture and it’s a westernised concept," she added.

Viji Balachandran, an IT professional, pointed out that, for a country with the highest population rate in the world, India is ironically averse to intimacy. She added, "Consentual PDA within limits is completely fine, but it’s quite difficult to make the older generation understand this. But them being judgmental about it doesn’t make hugging or kissing in public an obscene act until it doesn’t cross a line."

While speaking to these women, we can conclude that many are okay with PDA and find no harm it. For many, it is already a normalised concept, only the consent being the key. If it is consensual, PDA isn't wrong for them. 

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Views expressed by the author are their own