After bidding goodbye to the previous academic year, students are ready to welcome another one. At this point in time, one of the most discussed topics happens to be the dress codes in colleges.
Although many students dislike the whole concept, some parents agree with it. Many young girls and boys want to not just follow but set new trends and stay up to date with fashion. For such people, it seems to be difficult to come to terms with dress codes. The trend ranges from jeans and tees to tunics or skirts. But colleges stress that girls wear salwars and chudidars and boys come dressed in formal pants and shirts.
Many students opened up to City Express about their opinions on the college dress code rules.
Anitha (name changed), a second year Arts student of Mount Carmel College (MCC) says, “I don’t like dress codes. They simply rob me of my freedom. I wear clothes as per my wish and I feel comfortable in them.”
Monica, a first year student of Chitrakala Parishath says, “With the kind of subjects we have, it’s messy if we have a dress code. Also, people won’t be comfortable in them.”
The buzz in MCC is that, with the change in principal, there would be a change in the dress codes too. But Sister Juanita, former principal of the institute says, “We have not imposed anything like that. This is the age for students to be trendy. But we like to instill modesty in the way they dress, that’s all.”
Sindhi College, Kempapura also believes in according freedom to their students. “We want to prepare them for the corporate world, so we have assigned two days for them to dress formally. Apart from that we have no dress code,” says Nethra, the PRO of the college.
When asked why at the end of every year, authorities issue a dress code diktat, the common reply was that colleges want to ensure that their students stick to wearing clothes that are not revealing and vulgar. So, when they say that there will be a dress code, students find it better to not violate college rules.
The Principal of Presidency College, Sunitha says, “Generally parents insist on dress codes but students don’t want to join a college that has dress codes. To comfort parents, colleges announce dress codes but don’t implement it for students’ sake.”
When we spoke to parents, Malathi (name changed), the parent of a 19 year old says, “I think students should have dress codes because a sense of equality is established.” But another parent, Vinitha, disagreed, “College is where you can have fun by
dressing differently. There is no harm in wearing different dresses to college. But one must keep in mind why one is going to college and dress accordingly.”
More often than not, dress codes never get implemented. But whether they do or do not, it is clear that the youth like freedom and don’t like being told just how they should dress.