Attempt to enforce dress code in university

By Manas Dasgupta

BARODA, JULY 26. The self-styled ``protectors'' of Indian culture are at it again. Some student leaders of the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, claiming to be members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad but disowned by the organisation, recently held a ``striptease show'' on the university campus to enforce a ``dress code'' for the girl students.

About two dozen boys - some clad in shorts and vests and others wearing only trousers - entered the campus, danced in the chamber of the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Anil Kane, moved on two-wheelers from one department to another and even attended classes in the same dress.

The demonstrators wanted imposition of a ``dress code'' for girl students inside the campus, a demand that evoked strong protests from the girls and was rejected outright by Dr. Kane. ``The girl students coming in mini-frocks and such other revealing dresses instigate the boys to indulge in eve-teasing and must be banned in the University campus. The authorities must impose a minimum dress code for the girls to ensure a healthy atmosphere in the campus,'' Mr. Mayur Patel, a student leader and ABVP functionary supporting the agitation, said.

In a counter-protest, a few girl students came dressed in even more revealing dresses to attend classes. ``Eve-teasing does not depend on the dress of the girls but on the attitude of the boys,'' one girl said. Several women's organisations and voluntary bodies have condemned the move to impose curbs on the freedom of the girls. ``Women in burkhas (veil) have often been subjected to rape and eve-teasing. These fundamentalist organisations always try to shift the blame on women,'' said Ms. Trupti Shah of Sahiyar, a leading women's organisation in the city.

However, the ABVP national vice-president, Mr. Shirish Kulkarni, disowned the agitators. ``The ABVP has nothing to do with the agitation for a dress code. Some of the agitators might be ABVP activists but it is not being conducted under the banner of the organisation,'' he said.

The leader of the ``agitation'', Mr. Mehul Lakhani, elected to the students union as representative of the commerce faculty with the support of the ABVP, later admitted that it was organised without consulting the organisational set- up of the ABVP.

A shocked Vice-Chancellor said no student had the right to compel others to wear a particular type of dress. The university would not impose any such restrictions unless the dresses were against ``accepted social norms''. Imposing a compulsory dress code would amount to ``infringing on the freedom of the students'', he said adding that he would not be responsible if the police acted against the boys moving outside the university campus without shirts.

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