Centre's dress code move welcome

Ever since coming to power in May 2014, the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not exactly been on good terms with the universities or the student community. At a time when unpleasant episodes involving student leaders are still rankling, the Central government has come up with a most welcome notification by batting strongly for the rights of girl students and women employees of the universities.

In a new set of regulations dealing with sexual harassment on campuses, the Centre has banned discriminatory rules against girls like the stringent dress code, on the pretext of showing concern for their safety. Notifications separately issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), also warn the universities and colleges coming under them against imposing ‘discriminatory rules’ on boys and girls staying in their respective hostels, curtailing their freedom of mo-vement. The educational institutions have also been told that any violation of the regulations may lead to withdrawal of recognition granted by the two regulatory bodies.

The new Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar may take credit for these changes, but it obviously has the imprint of his much-maligned predecessor, Smriti Irani. The moot point, however, is whether these broad guidelines will end the controversies surrounding the dress code or the harassment faced by the girl students staying in hostels, as there are also a number of institutions outside the ambit of the UGC and the AICTE. Those running the educational institutions in this country have taken upon themselves the ‘moral obligation’ of dressing the students, especially women, ‘properly’ while they are in the college campus. There’s been no universally acceptable definition of what constitutes ‘appropriate attire.’ In this respect, the student protests against heavy-handed regulations have become quite common across the country.

Recently, a photograph of a group of girl students wearing ‘lungis’ in response to banning the wearing of jeans on the campus of a Kozhikode college went viral, indicating how difficult it is to regulate the behaviour of the youth, whose first impulse is to rebel against anything that is ‘imposed.’ Instead of trying to define what types of dresses are desirable or not desirable, the authorities should simply keep ‘decency’ and ‘convenience’ as the benchmark for all situations.

As far as non-discriminatory hostel rules are concerned, the order has not come a day too soon. The hostel wardens are known to impose bizarre rules, acting more matronly than the girls’ own mothers, thus severely restricting their freedom and movement. Girls are generally known to operate within the limitations of their gender vulnerability and any rule imposed externally should respect their sense of responsibility than becoming a draconian imposition.