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Campus wear for girls

Last week, a national daily published the results of an internet poll it conducted. The question voted was: "Should the universities ban girls from wearing minis, tank tops or tight jeans in the campus?" The results showed: Yes - 62 per cent; no - 33 per cent and the rest - cann’t say. Assuming that this reflects the general feeling of the people in the country, the impression gained is that most do not want our girls to be dressed inside the campus the way the wearers want. The underlying message is clear -- the girls should not distract the process of learning with their provocative or suggestive dresses. To that extent, it is necessary to understand the link between dress and the learning process. One reason for insisting on uniforms in schools is to rule out any discrimination and distraction arising out of the dress. With all the students wearing a same kind of dress, the attention of students would not be distracted. Also, this would rule out all sorts of economic diversities likely to arise because of costly dresses worn by the rich and the low cost dresses worn by the poor. But, all these restrictions generally end with the plus two level of the school. Once a student enters the college, he or she is allowed to wear any dress of his/her choice. This is the general policy adopted by all universities. But, many colleges come out with dress codes for girl students even as they are normally silent in respect of the boy students. "There is nothing wrong in prescribing the dress code for girl students. In fact, we should even make it imperative. The underlying message is that the girls do not induce eve teasing or otherwise help the boys to pass on obnoxious comments. Grown up as they are, they should be responsible enough not to invite trouble for themselves," explained a principal of a women’s college to this columnist. This college has prescribed blue saree with matching blouse as uniform for important occasions and white saree with matching blouse for solemn occasions. The rest of the time, the girls can come in any acceptable dress. While most come in churidar, few come in sarees and pants. Jeans are also worn, but not tight and tugged. Another principal wondered as to when the lecturers are required to come in sarees or churidars with their hairs tied and worn up, how the girl students could wear any dress that fails to be decent enough in the campus. So, they raise a question of decency in the dresses worn by the girl students. "The dress should win a respect for the wearer and not a tease." a college professor said.

In one college, considering the warm weather, cotton dresses are advocated though not insisted. The prospectus says: "Cotton being a cloth for comfort, this is recommended. Students, like the teachers, may prefer cotton sarees, half sarees, churidars and salwars for comfort." In Tamil Nadu, when the government recently came out with an appeal to the students to support the cotton saree manufactured by the handloom weavers, the students bought them in bulk through college sources. The sarees were cheap and good looking, besides highly comfortable in a warm condition. The students observed some days as handloom days and all of them wore these sarees. But then, this was not uniform except for the cotton material or handlooms. But, in the same state, girl students went on to a strike objecting to the dress restrictions imposed by the management. This included banning jeans, pipe tops, tight pants, etc. Such students believe that their freedom to dress should not be interfered. "When you do not have dress restrictions for boys, how could you discriminate them against us?" they asked.

One student showed tight churidar wearing girls to this columnist and asked: "If it is tight jeans, they are asking us not to wear them. But, if it is churidar, they are allowing us. How could a saree be less distracting than jeans?" For argument, all these are acceptable. But, a dress code is just as compulsory in offices where equality in rights are practised. There are many multinationals and the information technology companies which prescribe the dress code for women employees. They also, of course, have the code of conduct for the men towards their women colleagues. But the problem comes when dress code is regarded as dress restrictions. In institutions, there should be nothing wrong in dress code. Hospitals, hotels, defence, airlines, etc are some institutions which prescribe dress code. A less known fact is that even abroad, there are universities which prescribe dress code for girl students. Clubs always insist on what they regard as decent wear for both men and women. Given the fact that the student wear is almost 50 per cent of the garment’s women dress segment, such dress codes will have their own impact on the overall business. That also means, that this segment of the textile industry can come out with a variety of highly useful, colourful, but ‘decent’ dresses for campus wear. Let these dresses come with facilities to keep pens, papers, money, tickets, bus passes, etc, combining the tradition with modern look. Popularise them and this could open up new vistas in textile business.

- P S Sundar