The Government Resolution (GR), was reportedly issued by the school education department on Friday, March 15. The GR asks teachers to be cautious of what they wear as school-going children are impressionable and inappropriate clothes on teachers can have an adverse impact, the notification said.

The GR contains nine-point guidelines regarding dress-code for school teachers, it is applicable to all schools, irrespective of whether they are public or private run and affiliated to the board.

However, the newspaper reports that teachers and educationists, , have criticised the move while questioning the intent. A school teacher from Mumbai said, “Teachers are already conscious of dressing appropriately. Schools, too, are careful in ensuring the same in their own ways. There was absolutely no need for the state to interfere and declare a dress-code for teachers.” According to schools and teachers, it is their individual and local prerogative to decide what to wear.

Quick to respond, a senior official from the department however said, “These are guidelines and should not be considered as mandates. There is no decision yet on taking any action in case of non-compliance.”

Tr. For teachers

Just like “Dr” for doctors, “Adv” For lawyers, teachers will now write “Tr” as a prefix before their name. This decision by state’s school education department is aimed at boosting the morale of teachers by giving them recognition. The Commissionerate for school education is tasked with finalising a sign for the same, along with adequate publicity for it.

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“All of you are expected to take care of your behaviour and dressing when venturing out in the society so that nobody gets a chance to raise any objection. Your children also learn from you. Hence, it is requested to you that lungi or nighty, which are worn inside homes, should not be used outdoors,” the notice issued by the secretary of the residents’ body stated.

Soon, however, the move drew mixed reactions from the residents and “hurt” the sentiments of some, prompting the society to withdraw it after four days.

“The notice related to the dress code on June 10 was issued on the basis of a complaint raised by some residents. Nobody was forced for this nor the decision imposed on anyone. The society does not intend to hurt anyone’s sentiments,” the notice issued on Wednesday said.

By the time the media got wind of the same, society residents’ body president C B Kalra told PTI that the June 10 notice stands withdrawn. He said the notice was issued after some women complained about a co-resident doing yoga in the park wearing a ‘lungi’.

“We got positive feedback after the notice and so far not one resident of the society has come to complain about the notice but only outsiders, especially on social media, are bothered about it,” the retired government officer told PTI.

The society’s dress code announcement also found its way on social media, where users had varying opinions over the decision, with some backing it for “decency” while others criticising the “regressive” and “anti-South India” move.

The strange way that the controversy unravelled was when Kalra said the society does not have any residents belonging to south India and added that many people in north Indian states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh also wear a lungi. The housing society has around 250 families.

Greater Noida has been in the news since the midst of Covid-19 lockdown with controversial, even violent diktats against minority groups and their right to prayer were reported widely.

In 2021, the case of anti-Muslim aggression went to impossible heights when a 62-year-old man, Kazim Ahmed, was attacked by three Hindu youth in Noida Sector 37 in the National Capital Region. This was reported by Maktoob media on July 4, 2021.Kazim Ahmed, resident of Zakir Nagar in Delhi said to Maktoob that he was brutally beaten, harassed and attacked by the group while he was on his way to Aligarh to attend a relative’s wedding. He approached the Supreme Court thereafter.

Finally, in February 2023 following a notice from Supreme Court, four policemen from Noida sector 39 have been suspended as they failed to register a case against the culprits involved in the attack, robbery and abuse of 62-year-old Kazim Ahmed. The police station in-charge of Sector 113 Kotwali, Pramod Kumar, and the then Sector 39 Kotwali in-charge, Azad Tomar, were among those suspended on February 24, reported Maktoob Media. The FIR was finally registered on January 10, 2023 against some members of the Pechkas gang after the victim identified the assailants and a chargesheet has also been filed.

Scroll.in had reported how in the first week of Ramzan this year, 2023, after the first three night when prayers (namaaz) went smoothly, on the fourth day, on March 26, Mohammad Inam got a call from the security officer of the Supertech Eco-village II apartment complex in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The area falls under the aggressive and controversial Ajay Bisht aka Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh. It was the Cherry Country police post that led to the entire cycle with residents being told to “stop namaz.” When prayers were finally allowed, some aggressive groups from the majority community had started performing Hanuman Chalisia. Finally, Muslim residents were compelled to call off the Taraweeh namaz at the society.

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In a letter dated March 4, the Commissionerate of College Education in Rajasthan has directed all the state-run colleges to introduce a dress code that can be implemented from the next academic session. While it has already chosen the dress code, it has directed the colleges to discuss the ‘colour’ of the uniform for both boys and girls. The dress code decided for girls-namely salwar-suit, chunni, sweater or cardigan, saree, shoes/sandals and socks is especially troubling forcing an almost dictatorial view on how the girls should dress. The dress code for boys includes shirt, pant, jersey (in winters), shoes, socks and belt. The preferred colour of the uniform needs to be discussed and sent to the Commissionerate by March 12.
 
There are around 400,000 students, including 175,000 women, in government colleges in Rajasthan.

Understandably, the order has drawn flak from progressive sections. People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) leader Kavita Srivastava said the government wants to “clip the students’ freedom to wear what they want.” The PUCL also expressed that limiting the girls’ clothing to just salwar and saree and blouse in these times when girls are wearing trousers, jeans, t-shirt, skirts, ghaghara, palazzos etc , is like throttling their freedom to choose how they wish to express themselves.” PUCL has termed the order “unconstitutional, retrogressive, patriarchal and authoritarian step”
Kavita Srivastava also termed the directive a RashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh agenda of imposing its value system of “achi and buriaurat.”

PUCL was not the only one to react sharply on the order. Former chairperson of Rajasthan State Commission for Women Lad Kumari Jain too found the move regressive, she said “Tomorrow the government may ask women to come to colleges in veils. Which age are we living in? Do we want to push our women back to medieval times,”

However, Higher Education Minister Kiran Maheshwari said that the government is willing to accept other uniforms if the colleges write to them. “It will be better if we have some uniform which will help us identify who is a college student and who is an outsider” she said, while talking to The Indian Express.

The PUCL has demanded an immediate withdrawal of the circular.

https://sabrangindia.in/article/over-15-years-india-slides-key-marker-gender-parity

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Representation Image

According to the Telegraph, a Sunni Muslim organisation that follows the stricter Salafi branch of Islam has surprised many by refusing a Muslim teenager’s demand to wear the abaya on all days bypassing the more secular dress code at a college it runs. The college management has stood by its secular dress code.

The Jamia Nadwiya Teacher Training Institute in Edavanna, run by the Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen in Muslim-majority Malappuram district, has refused to relax its rules while stressing that it has students from other communities as well. This has sent out a strong message.

According to the report, the institute’s dress code makes it mandatory for its students – who are all women – to wear saris on three particular days of the week while allowing them a wider choice of clothing on the other days. An abaya is a black outer garment that covers everything but the face, feet and hands.

But one candudate, Husband, 18 and married, was not hapoy. Husna C, 18, who had obtained a seat in the DEd (Diploma in Education) course, made several attempts to get the management to relax the dress code before eventually dropping out. It was her husband P. Harshad Mohammed who spoke to  The Telegraph on her behalf saying that Husna has, aggrieved by this,  enrolled in a BA Economics course at another college.

Doing all the talking for his wife, Harshad said he was not against saris. “But like most Muslims, we too feel the abayais more comfortable and safer than the sari,” he said.

“When she realised that this college won’t allow her to wear the abaya on all days, my wife joined another college.”# He added: “It’s very unfortunate that a college run by a Muslim trust denied our request although some non-Muslim colleges allow students to wear the abaya, which conforms to our religious practices, on all days.”

Howeer, an official at the teacher training institute, who didn’t want to be identified, said the other Muslim students had been complying with the dress code, and that the college couldn’t have made an exception for one student.

“As we have Hindus and Christians among our students too, the management has for a long time been enforcing the sari as the uniform for Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays,” the official, a practising Muslim, said.

“We even have a uniform sari that all the students buy and wear. We had clearly told her (Husna’s) husband that rules are rules and if she wanted to wear the abaya, she could join any other college where it is allowed on all days.”

The Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen, founded in 1950, runs a cluster of institutions at its about 30-acre campus in Malappuram, including a nursing college, arts and science college, higher secondary school for girls, residential secondary school and a school of Islamic studies.
 

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