Many of us must be aware about the recent spurt in events where women and students in college campuses have been banned from wearing certain dresses and subsequently issued diktats following the matter. As a matter of fact, such incidents are on the rise at a rapid pace throughout the nation in spite of the government preaching and practising abstinence from social and gender biasness.
Recent incidents where women have been prevented in some of India’s most renowned colleges from wearing simple sleeveless kurtas has left many flabbergasted with disbelief. Even institutes like Aligarh Muslim University have issued diktats to the girl students preventing them from wearing westernized dresses like jeans or exposing parts of their bodies like their entire arms.
Students are wondering why they are restricted from wearing sleeveless kurtas if not jeans when their faculty members can easily sport sleeveless blouses or kurtas. The biasness forwarded towards them has left them fuming and frustrated with rage. Seething anger and hidden protests are storming the inner walls of the college campus as open protests are often avoided owing to the fear of future misappropriate behaviour from the college authorities themselves.
The offenders in such cases are mostly high official authorities of the colleges themselves or some other patriarchal social guardians of the society who are more concerned about a college students’ dress rather than her education. It has been seen that people coming from such higher managerial, administrative and political sections try to flex their authoritative muscle in this manner which gives them much sought psychological rush.
People from many sections from the society have repeatedly raised their voice against such incidents but the sheer number of fresh obnoxious activities surface everyday on a relentless basis. Protests and show of angst often fall on deaf ears and blind eyes in such cases owing to political and administrative pressures.
Women rights activist Meena Bhardwaj says, “A college or any person cannot direct a woman what to wear and what not to wear. If such incidents occur, the sole responsibility lies on the entire patriarchal system of education in the country. Some people have taken their position for granted and are misusing it to harass others instead of sticking to their duties.”
Recent incidents have raised the question of women’s rights in the country besides cries of violation of basic human rights. The manner in which the rights of women are quashed in every section of the education field makes the same education system guilty and questionable to what it actually taught the people of the nation. The repeated occurrences of such incidents is an alarming trend in the society according to many experts who feel that these must be checked with immediate effect.
“The path to salvation is not too complex and the rightful protest and exercising one’s fundamental rights is the way to conquer the odds against the tide. The right of one’s dressing must lie with the individual herself and not some random man who thinks himself ot be the guardian of the society as well as the bodies of many hundred women,” said women’s education activist Rekha Singhi while expressing her frustration regarding the diktats.
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