DU on a ‘cover up’ trip

Delhi University’s week-long Gyanodaya Education Trip kicked off recently amid the controversy regarding dress code guidelines issued by the University authorities. The guidelines posted on the University website states that ‘girls are not to wear skirts, shorts or spaghetti and boys are also not to wear shorts and sleeveless t-shirts’. The guidelines came as a precautionary measure for the safety of the students according to a faculty member’s statement to the media.
While some embraced this step taken by the University, others have expressed their dissatisfaction.
Nayani Khurana, a commerce student and a member of Drama Society says, “It’s not just about imposing a dress code but imposing an ideology. It just reinforces the notion that certain kind of clothes attracts trouble while others don’t. Youngsters are mature enough to know what they should wear and what they shouldn’t. If the intention was to maintain uniformity or discipline, it’d have been better if they had set a particular uniform for all the students instead of pinpointing certain types of clothes and labelling them unacceptable.”
Dr Anuja Agrawal, a faculty member in Delhi University’s Sociology Department says, “When such a large number of students form the tour group, protocol needs to be maintained to keep things in order. When the purpose of the tour is educational in nature and not tourism, the focus should be on learning something rather than focussing on other issues.”
Gyanodaya Express, with a library and Internet-enabled coaches, will take almost 900 students through Punjab with stops at Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Kurukshetra. The journey will focus on Punjab’s entrepreneurial spirit as well as the culture and history of the state.
Stuti Arora, a literature student in DU, feels that it makes sense for the University to be concerned about students and the impression they will make when they interact with people in other places. “Students have to attend college everyday from morning to evening. So the priority needs to be comfort. But when they go out on an official tour, they need to look presentable. Also, in Delhi, every other girl wears short dresses in summers but when they go to other places, they need to take that place’s culture into consideration. They don’t want to be the only one wearing such clothes,” she says.
Nayani, however, disagrees as she adds, “When we go to Europe, we are not told to stop wearing Indian clothes. And the purpose of such trips should be to take our culture to their places and bring some of theirs back. It’s a give and take.”
Karan Goyal, a resident of Chandigarh, feels that it shows prejudice on the part of the University when the students are allowed to wear clothes of their choice in their college but told not to wear certain clothes when they visit his city. “If the rationale is that it’s an educational trip and discipline needs to be maintained, then why such guidelines only when they come here and not in their own colleges? Isn’t education the main purpose in colleges too? Or is there an assumption that people in my city are not as cultured as in Delhi? They may be genuinely concerned about the students but there should be some consistency,” he concludes.