KASARGOD: On Monday, Alsha P S came to her school surprisingly in a pair of impeccable plaits. The natty girl had taken her school to the State Child Rights Commission against the same hairdo, and on Sunday got a favourable verdict. The commission ruled that insisting girls to wear their hair in plaits in school violated child rights.
When asked why didn’t she let her hair down on Monday, Alsha, a class 12 student of Government Higher Secondary School, Cheemeni, said, “I want my teachers to say that. I want them to say that we have a choice, and plaiting is not mandatory.”
Her decision to take on the school would bring relief to girl students across the state, as the State Child Rights Commission had directed the General Education Department and Higher Education Department to issue orders against insistence of double braids.
School ignored girl’s hairsplitting
Alsha raised the issue with the administration last year as the chairperson of the school parliament. I had pointed out scientific reasons why insisting on plaits was bad for hair. “In the morning, after bath, we hardly get time to dry our hair, and tying up the wet hair produces foul smell,” she said and added that it could also lead to fungal infection and rashes on the scalp. She insists she took up the issue as the leader of the school and not as an individual.
But the school did not take her hairsplitting seriously. “We could not make an exception for one person. Tomorrow other students will come up with their own demands,” said principal Prabhavati on Monday. Once boys of humanities came to school wearing jeans “to counter girls not braiding their hair”. “What should we do,” she asks. To be sure, the school has a uniform, and wearing jeans was a clear violation of rules and not comparable to the girl’s demand.
When asked about the State Child Rights Commission’s stance, she said, “Now we will not be able to insist on plaits but girls will be asked to keep it tidy,” she said.Prabhavati, however, described the whole episode as an “attention-seeking exercise” to “satisfy one man’s ego”, hinting at the girl’s father, Sanal Shah, a former science teacher of the school, and now the headmaster of a neighbouring high school.
“We wore hair in plaits when we were in school. This rule was in Cheemeni school when I came three years ago,” she said. “Why rake it up and make it an issue?”
‘Forced to move the commission’
Alsha said she was forced to write to the Child Rights Protection Officer of Kasargod after the school continued to ignore her request, even as officially maintaining double braids were not mandatory. The girl was fully backed by her parents, Shah and Priya K, a civil police officer posted at Cheemeni Police Station, less than 300m away from the school.“I had raised the issue of braiding at the PTA meeting last year and the girl’s father also took up the matter at the executive meeting of the PTA. We were not given a hearing,” said Priya. In the face of scientific evidence, Shah said, the school resorted to citing precedents rather than taking a decision in the interest of the children.
Commission swings into action
As soon as the District Child Protection Unit in Kasargod received the complaint, it sent a social worker and a volunteer to the school to enquire about it.
“We asked the school for a report after conducting a class meeting of higher secondary students,” said Biju P, district child protection officer, who played a key role in the commission’s decision. But instead of a class meeting, the school called for a PTA meeting, and sent a report saying parents overwhelmingly supported the school’s rules, without specifying what they are, he said.
‘As part of beautification’
But the school’s reply was queerer on many fronts, said Biju. To begin with, the principal, Prabhavati, denied “forcing” girls to sport double braids in school. “But what she wrote next surprised me,” said Biju.
The principal in her reply dated July 22 wrote: “As in nearby schools, the girls of Government Higher Secondary School, Cheemeni, too comes in double braids as part of ‘beautification’. She said she had not got any complaint regarding the hairdo.
However, on the instruction of the Child Rights Protection Unit in Kasargod, the school called for a meeting of the PTA on July 18 and 19. “Of the 237 parents, 164 persons attended the meeting. Expect for one parent, the rest of the 163 parents signed a proforma saying they agreed to the present norms of the school,” she said.
Several teachers the Express spoke to said sporting plaits was not mandatory, but “as part of discipline” and “for the students’ own well-being” while working in lab, tying up the hair helped.
The child protection officer said, apart from asking school for a report, he had asked students to sent in their views directly to him. “I got a letter from students saying they were against braiding their hair. It had signatures of 79 students from class 12,” he said. The students of class 11 were yet to arrive then.
Even the boys Express spoke to said the braid rules were binding on students. “A girl in humanities was sent home for not tying her hair,” said a student.
Based on the letter and the inputs given by the two staffers, Biju sent his report to the State Child Rights Commission.
The district child protection officer said in parents rarely opened up during PTA meeting fearing their children would have to bear the brunt of teachers. “Internal marks are often used as a sword hung by a hair over the students to silence them,” he said.
Alsha, who scored cent percent in class 11, said the concept of internal marks should be reviewed.
“I am speaking up because I am confident of what I can achieve and my parents back me. But that is not the case of others,” she said.