When we speak of gender equality at a national level, we speak of progress by leaps and bounds; we boast of rapid change. Can we say that things have changed from yesteryear and the olden days of our grandmothers? Evidently not. Atrocities on both scales, large and small, are committed against women on a daily basis. What a student can speak about, nevertheless, is the misogyny that plagues the educational institutes that span our country.
When a child of sixteen is told that she can not go up on stage and perform because her knee-length dress is deemed too short. What are we teaching her? That her effort and talent are worthless if her clothes don't fit the mindset of the small-minded few; that she will only be respected and valued if her attire satisfies an authority figure. That child is now convinced that her clothes matter more than her mind, her ideas, and her aspirations.
Schools often throw that word around, distraction, distraction, as though it means nothing and carries no weight. Consciously or unconsciously, they are drilling into the minds of their girl students that they are distractions, that they are something to be ogled at on a slow afternoon after a big lunch. Furthermore, some colleges and universities still choose to impose a dress code of only traditional wear on their students. But, once more, the male students are oh-so-easily released from this compulsion. This occurrence begs the question yet again, policy or policing?
Not all schools and universities employ these hypocritical regulations and harbour these dated ideologies. Some may even take strides towards changing a few of them. This they may do out of genuine concern or just as disguised pandering. But, instead of applauding them for doing the bare minimum and calling it a day, should we not ask, “Do we not owe the young women of India more than this? In a country like ours, shouldn't taking one step forward and two steps back, stop?”
