Kerala school hijab row snowballing as vested interests come into action

While SDPI is backing the demand to allow the student to wear hijab, various churches are in support of the school management over uniform

Thiruvananthapuram: The hijab controversy at a school in Kochi is snowballing into a major row, with the vested interest groups trying to give it a communal colour.

The class 8 student of St. Rita's Public School at Palluruthy in Kochi is still keeping herself off the school as her parents are yet to make clear their stand on whether they will abide by the school uniform that doesn't allow hijab (headscarf).

The school management is remaining firm on its stand, citing a 2018 order of the Kerala High Court that gives rights to school managements to prescribe uniforms.

With the Social Democratic Party of India, the political arm of the banned outfit Popular Front of India, backing the demand to allow the student to wear the hijab and various churches backing the school management, the issue is being given a communal colour by vested interest groups.

Kerala General Education Minister V Sivankutty is coming under strong criticism for allegedly adding fuel to the controversy by stating that the student should be allowed to wear hijab in the school, that too hours after Congress MP Hibi Eden announced that the matter was amicably settled with the student's parents agreeing to abide by the school uniform.

Sivankutty made the stand, citing a State Education Department's report flaying the school for not allowing the student to wear hijab, which the school management cited as a violation of the 2018 High Court order as well as the 2022 Karnataka High Court order.

While Sivankutty was being widely accused of trying to appease Muslim outfits, the backing of the BJP and its coalition partners to the Christian management school could be seen as yet another attempt of the saffron party to get closer to the Christian community for electoral gains.

With two minority communities on either side, the Congress is maintaining a stand that the issue should be settled without giving communal forces to take advantage of it. Opposition leader V D Satheesan accused Sivankutty of raking up the issue that was settled in mediations initiated by the Congress MP.

Social activist M N Karaserry said the ongoing debates over the issue would only harm all the students of the school, in particular, as well as society as a whole. "If the school has a prescribed uniform which the student and parents know while taking admission, they should abide by it. The priority of girls is education rather than wearing any religious symbols," he pointed out and accused the Education Minister of rubbing salt into the wound.

Kerala-based Muslim Education Society, which runs scores of educational institutions, had earlier banned students from using niqab that covers the face in its educational institutions. The ban is still in place.

It is not the first time that Kerala is facing such an issue. Last year, Christian management-run Nirmala College at Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district witnessed tension over demand by a section of students for a separate space for offering namaz.

The present row is also raising many eyebrows as the class 8 student, who joined the school this academic year, was not wearing the hijab for the last four months, and all of a sudden came wearing it.

With the local body elections in Kerala set to happen soon, the political and communal twists being given to the issue attain more significance.