Bhiwani college refuses to drop dress code #WTFnews #moralpolicing #Vaw

By TNN and HT | Dec 11, 2012,

BHIWANI: Adarsh Mahila College in Bhiwaniruled out any change to its dress code even as the national commission for Women (NCW) lashed out at it on Monday for penalizing girls for wearing jeans.

Calling the decision uncalled for and bizarre, NCWchairperson Mamta Sharma said, “The government must take action against such institutes.” The college authorities on Friday had slapped an Rs 100 fine on four students for coming to college in jeans and T-shirts.

However, college principal Alka Sharma said that the dress code would remain in force and they were not considering changing it. “Why should we change the dress code? There is no such demand from the students,” she stated adding that they allowed wearing jeans with a long kurta but not t-shirts.

When asked whether there have been any instructions from the Haryana higher education department or the university grant commission on a dress code in the colleges, she replied, “We receive no instructions from these authorities. Nor am I aware about any dress code in any other colleges or varsities,” she stated.

“The college has been carrying forward the tradition and principles set up by its founders and has made a mark in imparting education to the women”, she said.

Justifying the decision to impose a fine on four women students for violating the college dress code on Friday, the principal of the institution said there was no question of its withdrawal. Four students of Adarsh Mahila Mahavidyalaya women’s college at Bhiwani were fined Rs. 100 each after they were found wearing jeans and T-shirts by principal Alka Sharma during a surprise check. The students tried to register their protest by mobilising support from their classmates but had to abandon it after the college authorities warned them of severe consequences. Principal Sharma said, “The reason we have banned the western outfits is because when there a dress code, all the girls look alike and nobody suffers from any kind of complex. But western clothes attract the attention of men.”

Students expressed their indignation over the dress code to mediapersons in the college on Monday. “The norm of abstaining from wearing western clothes may have gone down well in the 1970s or ’80s when the college came into existence but we are girls of generation Y,” said a student who didn’t want to be named.

Said another student, Ritu, “The ban on wearing jeans or western clothes doesn’t guarantee that boys will not pass comments on girls. Even if a girl wears a burqa and doesn’t have confidence to handle the situation, she too can fall victim to eve-teasing.”

Jatinder Parsad, head of the sociology department at Rohtak’s Maharishi Dayanand College, said, “Imposition of a ban on jeans and T-shirts is something like a ban on their freedom and today if they are moulded according to a conservative mindset, how would they fit themselves in jobs if they move to metros or foreign countries?”

The girl students and the faculty of the college maintained that there had been opposition to the dress code but the authorities remained unmoved. However, students of the college refused to come on record against it