South Delhi Municipal Corporation bans wearing of religious dress in schools

The Education Committee of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has asked its education department officials to ensure that no student wearing ‘religious attire’ comes to SDMC schools. Nitika Sharma, president of the education committee of SDMC and BJP councilor, has written a letter to the Director of Education of SDMC in this regard.In the letter, Sharma has asked the Director of Education to instruct all the zonal  officers to ensure that the students do not come to the primary schools of SDMC wearing ‘religious dress’ and allow them to enter the school in the prescribed dress code. Go.

The SDMC’s decision comes days after a parent in north-east Delhi’s Tukhmirpur area alleged that a government school teacher had asked her daughter to remove the ‘scarf’ tied on her head. Sharma argued that attending the class wearing ‘religious attire’ would create a sense of ‘disparity’ among the students. “I have asked the Director of Education, SDMC to instruct the zonal officer to ensure that students do not come to schools in religious attire, as this creates a sense of disparity and differences between them,” he said.

Sharma said, “A proper dress code has been prescribed for the schools of SDMC and the students should follow it. We give school dress free of cost to children every year, so that they wear it instead of religious dress while coming to school. However, he clarified that students can wear ‘religious dress’ during fancy dress competitions or festivals in schools. SDMC runs about 568 schools up to class V. About 2.5 lakh students study in these schools.

In the letter, Sharma wrote, ‘Recently it has been seen that some parents are sending their children to school in religious dress, which is not right. This can develop a sense of inequality among the students, which is not good for their future at all.

Sharma said, “Keeping these things in mind, all the regional officers should be directed to ensure that the students wear clothes other than the school uniform only during competitions or festivals. On normal days, they should attend school in school uniform only.

It has been claimed in the letter that such a dress has been prescribed for the students, in which they look beautiful. It states that the SDMC keeps changing the color of the dress as and when required, so that there is no inferiority complex between rich and poor children. Sharma told The Indian Express that he decided to write the letter after the incident at Tukhmirpur school. “The letter has been written to ensure that such incident does not happen in the schools under our jurisdiction,” he said.

Asked if the same rule would apply to turban-wearing students, he said, “No, it is different. A turban is needed to tie the hair. Sikhs come in turbans in every school and this should not be linked to it. A Class VI student of a government school in Tukhmirpur area of ​​Mustafabad had gone to school for the first time on February 21, when she was allegedly asked to remove her hijab for admission. After a video of the incident with the girl went viral on social media, her father first contacted the school principal, who told him that the school worked as per the Delhi government’s guidelines on uniforms Is.

The girl’s father had told, ‘The principal first told me that the Delhi government wants all the students to wear the same clothes and she was just following orders. When I asked them to say this on camera or show me the legal notice, the four teachers present in the room snatched my phone and abused me in the presence of the principal. They were all women, so I couldn’t do anything.

The principal denied the incident. However, the Mustafabad incident took place in a school run by the Delhi government and not in a school run by the SDMC. Municipal corporations in Delhi can run schools only up to class V, while schools under the Delhi government can cover all secondary grades.

Meanwhile, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said on February 24 that the matter was being politicized and students of all religions were treated with respect in government schools in Delhi. The Delhi government’s education department, which does not control municipal schools, said they were not aware of the SDMC’s order. There is no such instruction in Delhi government schools. Government schools in Delhi are divided into two categories – those run by the Delhi government and the municipal corporations. Municipal corporations can run schools only up to class V, the Delhi government has no such restriction.

The hijab controversy first started at a government pre-university college in Karnataka’s Udupi district when six girls came to class in December last year wearing hijab and in response Hindu students came to the college wearing saffron gamchas. .

Gradually, the controversy spread to other parts of the state as well, leading to tension in educational institutions at many places and violence. Till the settlement, the students were asked not to insist on wearing religious clothes on the premises of educational institutions. Against this decision, a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court.