Gehlot to 'de-saffronise' government school uniforms in Rajasthan: Report

Ashok Gehlot has announced free distribution of school uniforms to avoid any additional expense for the parents

Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot has decided to 'de-saffronise' government school uniforms of students by changing the colour from the current that allegedly resembles RSS's khakhi dress, according to a report by The New Indian Express.

The state government has formed a committee to decide the colour of the new uniform for nearly 80 lakh students of the state schools.

The school uniform of Rajasthan’s government schools was changed to brown colour trousers and light brown shirts in 2017 by then Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. The move drew criticism from the Congress party as it resembled RSS’s khaki uniform. It had alleged that it was the BJP's move to "saffronise" the state.

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Gehlot has announced that the school uniforms will be provided to the students free of cost, to avoid any additional expense for the parents. It is estimated that the move will cost over Rs 400 crore.

“This (the colour of new uniform) will be decided by a special committee. Free clothing will be offered to children in all public schools. For this, we will decide to put money in the parents’ account via DBT or we may just provide the new dress to students,” The Education Minister, Govind Singh Dotasara told the publication.

The Gehlot government’s proposal to change the uniform was put down last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.