The Department of Collegiate Education has been forced to withdraw a controversial dress code circular — which asked principals to ensure that women lecturers shunned chudidars and wore saris instead — in the wake of widespread resentment.
On Wednesday evening, the Regional Joint Director of Collegiate Education, Mysuru, M.K. Umanath, withdrew the July 4 circular that had directed the principals of government and aided degree colleges to ensure that women lecturers shunned chudidars and wore saris in the college instead.
The circular was withdrawn after officials of the department in Mysuru received a communication from the office of the Commissioner of Collegiate Education in Bengaluru. The circular had not gone down well with many women teachers who saw it as an unnecessary imposition of a dress code.
“I don’t understand the logic behind suggesting saris. What is wrong with chudidar in which we feel more comfortable than in sari?” an assistant professor in a government degree college in Hassan said, and pointed out that she was not comfortable riding her two-wheeler to college wearing a sari. She said a similar circular was issued earlier too and withdrawn following opposition.
Another assistant professor rued that some principals were trying to impose the sari code on women faculty members even in the absence of such a circular. “When some of us opposed the dress code, we had to face difficulties. In some instances, the principals have also issued notices for not wearing saris,” she said, and added that principals tend to overlook the clarification issued by the government on an earlier occasion.
Meanwhile, officials in the department in Mysuru said the dress code circular was issued only after receiving a written communication from the Chief Administrative Officer of the department in Bengaluru, based on a complaint submitted to Minister for Higher Education Basavaraj Rayaraddi by a resident of Kolar against wearing of chudidars by women teachers.
The communication, accompanied by a copy of the complaint, sent to all the six Joint Directors of Collegiate Education in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Kalaburagi, Dharwad, and Shivamogga had sought steps against what it called “indecent attire” by women lecturers.
“... We have withdrawn the circular after receiving oral instructions from the office of the Commissioner,” said a senior official in the department in Mysuru.
