KASARGOD: The usual bedlam in educational institutions is over religion, dress and personal appearance. In Kerala last week, the brouhaha was about girl students braiding their hair. Asha, studying in Class VII, Government Higher Secondary School, Cheemeni, caught a break from a hair-raising experience after the State Child Rights Commission vetoed school rules directing girls wear plaits on campus, saying they violated child rights. The school mandates that girls wear their hair in two plaits and boys cannot wear jeans.
The precocious Asha had raised the issue with the institution’s administration last year as the chairperson of the school parliament, and principal Prabhavati wasn’t amused. Says Asha, “I had pointed out the scientific reasons why insisting on plaits is bad for hair. In the morning after a bath we hardly get any time to dry our hair. Pleating wet hair produces foul smell and could also lead to fungal infection and rashes on the scalp.” 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,” Prabhavati had said. One time, male students came wearing jeans “to counter girls not braiding their hair”. However, when Asha came to school a day after the ruling, she was wearing plaits. When asked why didn’t she let her hair down on Monday, she said, “I want my teachers to say that plaits are not mandatory.”
After the District Child Protection Unit in Kasargod had received her complaint, it sent a social worker and a volunteer to the school to enquire. “We asked the school for a report after conducting a class meeting of higher secondary students,” said Biju P, the district child protection officer who played a key role in the commission’s decision. He says Prabhavati had written to him that girls wore double plaits for “beautification”. Asha proved it is not in the eyes of the beholder, but her own.