Row as IIT-Delhi asks girls to wear 'decent', 'full clothes'

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, ran into a controversy on Tuesday after warden of a women’s hostel in the campus issued a notice seeking the inmates to wear "full covered descent dresses" on the upcoming House Day to be observed on April 20.

The institute administration, however, swung into action and got the notice withdrawn immediately as the row erupted. “There is no dress code in our campus. Some warden issued such a notice on her own. The notice was not the institute’s stand. We have withdrawn it,” the IIT-Delhi V Ram Gopal Rao told DH.

The controversial dress code was prescribed to the Himadri hostel residents by its warden Sreedevi Upadhyayula, who is also an associate professor with the institute.
“The House Day is on April 20. All the residents are requested to wear a full covered decent western or Indian or western dresses,” the notice read.

“I am away from the institute. I will talk to her (hostel warden) about the notice after I return,” the IIT Director said, when asked if the hostel warden was issued any show cause notice on the issue. Upadhyayula, however, denied having issued any such notice.

"I have not issued any such notice. It looks like some prank by students as it has been circulated on social media as well. I have been told that it has my signatures as well and I have called a meeting of the hostel staff to investigate the issue,” a news agency quoted the hostel warden as saying.

Students of the institute, however, rejected the warden’s claim on condition of anonymity, saying the circular put up on the Hostel’s notice board was signed and issued by her.

Meanwhile, Delhi Women Commission Chief Swati Maliwal criticised the institute over issue of such a notice to its girl students, describing the move as "patriarchal."

"It is a horrible display of a patriarchal mindset by a prestigious institution like IIT. This kind of moral policing needs to stop. The DCW is looking into the matter," she said.