JOIN USAre uniforms really uniform?
Looking back at some of my old school pictures, I notice how every student’s uniform differed in length. Some tunics stayed at knee-length; the others passed down from older siblings, were hemmed but still hung below the knees. For many more, the uniforms stayed above the knees, well-paired with rolled-down socks and tightly fitted belts.
Commuting back and forth from school was by cycle-rickshaws many times. I remember how we would place our school bags strategically in front of our folded knees to avoid any embarrassment. And if we ever cycled on our own to school, we would be conscious of our tunics not rolling up. Many schoolmates, therefore, would utilise cycling shorts to steer clear of gazes. As design consultant, Vidya Mukundan says, “Because of the clothes that girls wear, they are always made conscious of their bodies.” Vidya designed gender-neutral uniforms for a school in Kerala where the focus was on comfort and convenience. Vidya is also a filmmaker, actor and writer who drew from her personal experiences to design a uniform that spelt freedom for both genders. “As a girl child, I remember avoiding sports because of the skirts we had to wear in school. The concept of uniforms must change to overcome these limitations,” she adds.
Many schools have adopted a similar stance. Ankur Montessori in Bengaluru does not have a uniform per se but recommends comfortable trousers and T-shirts for kids. Somika Basu, an early childhood educator with Ankur explains the reason behind it. “In a school environment, it is especially important for little girls to feel enabled to participate in the same activities as their male counterparts. We don’t want to convey the message that girls can’t climb the jungle gym, play in the mud, hang upside down or sit cross-legged on the floor because of the clothes they wear,” she says, adding that children begin to form ideas about their place in the world at a young age and drawing attention to gender differences may not be the right way forward.
The shift in uniform design, nonetheless, has met with resistance in some quarters as seen in Kerala. As Vidya puts it, “Whenever good changes happen in our society, the patriarchal system tries to impose its way through religion, culture and biology. The clothes themselves do not come with the label of gender. We started assigning gender to clothes based on our beliefs.” Vidya is, nonetheless, hopeful of evolution, even if it takes time. “Clothes should reflect comfort, freedom and equality,” she insists.
Comfort in terms of clothing, especially for sports, saw takers at the European Beach Handball Championship too. In 2021, the women’s Norwegian handball team was fined for switching to comfortable shorts instead of the official dress code of bikini bottoms. Similar dictations of dress codes called for objections in the case of badminton and golf. While in one case, the guidelines insisted women players wear skirts or dresses, in the other, the length of the skirts became a point of discussion. Interestingly, in all the above cases, whether it was schools or international sports, the debates were only around the uniforms of one gender. For the other gender, nothing seemed to have changed over the years, besides perhaps colour or design.
The responsibility lies on many of us for this as well. Scores of times, we have found ourselves guilty of dolling our little girls up so that they look like princesses. Perhaps, it is time to let them be free, both physically and mentally.
Skirts and dresses have their space. But maybe not in schools and maybe not limited to gender. Jainil Mehta, dancer, artist and choreographer who has a global social media following, would definitely believe so, considering his flair for dancing in skirts. With #MenInSkirts, his reels seek to make clothes gender-neutral too.