Women Protest Ripped Jeans' Ban At St Xaviers College

In a regressive move, St Xavier’s College in Mumbai -- known for being one of the top colleges in the country -- has banned ripped jeans for its students. This has sparked a stir among its female students as they protest against the draconian law.

When we have gotten freedom more than 60 years ago now, the Indian colleges have yet not set their students free, especially women, as they keep putting dress code rules, time restrictions on them all the time.

And Xavier’s is one that is known to have dress code restrictions in a city like Mumbai which is the epitome of liberation in our country. The college that has already restricted shorts, sleeveless blouses and short skirts in the campus in the name of safety for its students has come up with another restriction of banning ripped jeans. And this time the college authority is reasoning it out saying, “In the name of fashion, students are mocking the clothes that the poor are forced to wear. As a Jesuit institution, we cannot allow it,” reported Hindustan Times.

Delhi and other cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Kanpur are no better as famous colleges known for their educational courses around the world also have bizarre curfews, sexist rules etc especially for women.

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Just a few months back, Delhi’s famous Pinjra Tod group held protests because Hindu College of the Delhi University had built its first ever girls’ hostel but kept its fees way higher than the boys’ hostel. Not just that, they also circulated a list of sexist rules for the girls who were to stay in the hostel. It sparked rage among the students who passionately called out on the misogyny.

“It is absolutely unacceptable from colleges to put us through such rules. College is one place where we get our freedom to do what we want, study or not and experiment most of all. It’s a place where we realize what works for us and in all this if we are still told what we can and cannot do or wear or how longer can we stay in the damned library, it is not at all progressive. And especially discriminating one gender over the other just worsen the cause,” a Pinjra Tod activist told SheThePeople.TV.

Many colleges in various parts of the country have come up with rules discriminating one against the other gender and this needs to stop as we go forward in 2017.