The Hindu : Front Page : Activists, writers join protest against dress code

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 16, 2005

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Front Page

Activists, writers join protest against dress code

J. Malarvizhi

DISCUSSION: Educationist, S.S. Rajagopalan (left), writer Kanimozhi and State secretary of the All-India Democratic Women's Association, U. Vasugi, at a meeting on dress code in Anna University. — Photo: Vino John

CHENNAI: Anna University Vice-Chancellor does not have the legal power to decide what students should wear to college, said S.S. Rajagopalan, educationist.

The Vice-Chancellor, chief executive of university, could only execute what the Syndicate and the Senate decided on, he said addressing a meeting organised by the All-India Democratic Women's Association and Students Federation of India here on Thursday.

"As education increasingly becomes the prerogative of the privileged, it is necessary for the under-privileged to pay close attention to the issues surrounding education,'' he said.

U. Vasugi, State secretary, AIDWA; Kanimozhi, poet and writer; and G. Selva, State leader of the SFI, said enforcing a dress code and banning cell phones was unjustified and authoritarian.

"The SFI and AIDWA have condemned obscenity in films and oppose the dress code because it betrays an ignorance of the reasons for women's social subjugation,'' said Ms. Vasugi.

Writer Kanimozhi expressed surprise that students who were deemed old enough to vote and select governments could not be trusted to choose their attire. Mr. Selva criticised self-financing engineering colleges for fining students for talking to the opposite sex.

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