Rajasthan has come up with a decision to enforce a dress code for students in all the government colleges from the upcoming academic session onwards. While boys will be required to wear formal shirts, trousers, shoes, socks, and belt; girls have to wear a salwar suit or saree.
The commissionerate college education had sent a circular to all 219 government colleges and principals have been asked to decide the color of the dress. The submissions have to be made latest by 12th March. Once the dress code is implemented in government colleges, students will not be allowed to enter the college premises in any other attire. This means that they won’t be able to dress up with their choice as in other private colleges.
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The rule will also bring a big change since girls will not be allowed in casuals like jeans, tee-shirts and skirts in government colleges. Congress had objected the decision with the accusation that BJP is aiming to saffronise the colleges on the instructions of RSS. Congress Chief Whip Govind Singh Dotasara had said that first BJP changed the curriculum then distributed saffron cycles to the students and the party would protest against the decision.
To this, the state higher education minister Kiran Maheshwari had clarified that the color of the dress code in government colleges hasn’t been fixed and only the code has been fixed. The principals along with senior faculty members and student union representatives have been asked to discuss and decide the color. She also pointed out that the students had complained of outsiders entering the colleges and hence clarity was needed on the identity of the students.
The dress code enforcement in government colleges has also grabbed eyeballs because some are arguing that asking girls what to wear is throttling their freedom while others pointed out that boys should also be asked to carry a traditional look in kurta pyjamas if girls are asked to wear sarees. To this, the minister clarified that sarees are not compulsory, girls can wear salwar suit instead.
Interestingly, in earlier incidents, Hindu College and St Xavier College of Mumbai had asked the students not to wear jeans that led a lot of protest and the authorities had to be withdrawn.
