Maharashtra college says no ‘short skirts’, upsets students!

We are, believe it or not, still in an age where colleges and universities decide the length and nature of women’s clothing. What else are you going to say in regards to a ruling delivered by a Maharashtra college that has got its students asking questions and well, irked, understandably so.

But before that a context.

Rape, without a doubt among the most malicious crimes in the whole wide world, is indeed a grave concern that has an entire India thinking and riled up.

And believe it or not, owing to a part of the cultural strata that feels that a woman’s skirt length defines the extent to which she is ‘copping’ up trouble (read gaze from unfriendly eyes), would you really blame this college in Maharashtra for having said ‘no’ on short skirts?

While hundreds and thousands of protest marches have already been held across India, with women vehemently suggest what does, after all make sense, “The fault is not in the length of the skirt but in the one who is eyeing us’, nothing, seems to have changed.

And to that end, that the vicious crime has continued to erupt as a national scourge, a college in Maharashtra was left with no other choice but to ban short skirts in its campus.

While this may genuinely appall those girls who still wish to believe that the society they’re a part of is better than that, one wonders, if it really is.

So what exactly happened and who is to be blamed, you might ask?

Among the most revered media outlets, NDTV shared the following:

Authorities of Mumbai’s JJ Hospital’s Grant Medical College came up with the set of instructions after a Holi event on March 21, students said. Today, students wore ankle-length clothes and covered their faces in protest towards the circular issued by the college.

“The instructions were issued by Dean Dr Ajay Chandanwale and Warden Shilpa Patil. They said women must not wear short skirts, should sit apart from men at events and return to their hostels before 10 pm,” students said.

“We condemn this decision of the college administration. It unnecessarily encroaches on our right to dress the way we want. Why should everyone be punished for the actions, unruly students.”

The college dean, however, maintains one single expectation of the students in his urge to ensure that all’s well in the campus, ultimately, a hub of education. He says that the only expectation that he has of students is that they dress appropriately, nothing else.

That told, it remains to be seen, will he be held accountable for furnishing a simple request or will he be blamed for having implementing a rule that is, after all, for the betterment of the girls there? However, the students may also want to know as to what safety measures are being implemented or proposed in order to ensure that they are being taken care of whilst they study.