Vasundhara Raje rolls back mandatory uniforms in Rajasthan colleges, cites student unhappiness as reason

Overruling a direction by her government to introduce uniforms in government colleges, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje has directed that the uniforms will be voluntary. She cited the unhappiness of students as the reason for her decision. She also insisted that the government wants to provide girls with whatever they require in order to excel in their education.

I have therefore asked that uniforms be made voluntary rather than compulsory. We are here to provide our girls with whatever they require in order to excel in their education. #GirlsFirst

— Vasundhara Raje (@VasundharaBJP) March 13, 2018

Earlier in March, the state’s BJP government implemented a dress code in state-run colleges from academic year 2018-19, drawing protest from the Congress which had dubbed it as an attempt to “saffronise” the institutions. The Department of College Education had sent a letter to the principals of government colleges asking them to decide the colour of the dress for boys and girls and submit it by 12 March. [caption id=“attachment_4231111” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje. Reuters[/caption] The dress code for boys included shirt, trousers, sweater (winters), shoes, socks and belt. For girls, it was salwar suit, dupatta, sweater or cardigan (winters), saree, shoes/sandals and socks. The dress code had to be implemented in government colleges from the 2018-19 academic session. The principals had been directed to decide dress colour with senior faculty members, student union representatives and had to submit it by 12 March, the letter had said. The Congress had said that it would oppose the decision and alleged that the government was pursuing RSS agenda. “The government is working on the agenda of the RSS. They have changed school curriculum, distributed saffron cycles and are now bent on saffronising colleges. We will protest any such attempt,” Congress chief whip Govind Singh Dotasara had said outside the Rajasthan Assembly. However, the government had said that the decision was being taken on the students demands. “Dress code was a demand of the students who have complained that outsiders enter college premises. There should be clarity on the identity of students. We have left it on the colleges to decide on the dress colour. We have not imposed any particular colour,” state higher education minister Kiran Maheshwari had said." With inputs from PTI