High schools across Karnataka, which were shut following the row over dress code, reopened on Monday, with a few instances of girl students returning without attending classes because they were not allowed to wear the hijab (headscarf) being reported in a couple of districts. Most places saw students attending classes as usual, though there was thin attendance in some schools. Police force was deployed in sensitive areas and prohibitory orders around schools.
In Bengaluru, most schools saw students attending classes following the uniform rules. As a precautionary measure, at Vidyasagar English School in Chandra Layout, additional police personnel were deployed. On Saturday, some parents had staged a protest here alleging that a teacher had made derogatory remarks about hijab. The teacher had dismissed the allegations.
Students walk out
As many as 13 SSLC girl students refused to take the preparatory examinations that began in Shivamogga on Monday, as the school staff did not allow them to enter the classrooms with hijab. The girls, students of Government Pre-University College, walked out of the examination centre refusing to take the examination. The Shivamogga district administration had clamped prohibitory orders in 200 m of radius around high schools to avoid any untoward incident when the schools started on the day.
When the schools reopened at Mysuru, officials rushed to four schools where Muslim girls turned up wearing hijab to speak to the children and their parents. At two places, some girl children returned home without attending classes as they were not allowed to wear headscarf.
Deputy Director of Public Instruction in Mysuru Ramachandra Raje Urs told The Hindu that the Superintendent of Police and the BEO rushed to Kavalande village in Nanjangud taluk where some Muslim girls had come wearing hijab. “The officers and the school authorities persuaded the children to attend the school assembly in the prescribed uniform,” he informed. Mysuru saw children being absent in some schools since they insisted on the dress code.
Convinced to attend
At Belagavi, Muslim girls turned up in schools wearing hijab. However, female teachers and staff members counselled them to enter schools after removing the head scarves. Deputy Commissioner M.G. Hiremath, Police Commissioner M.B. Boralingaiah, went around Belagavi, visiting schools.
Following their teacher’s request, as many 10 girls took off their hijabs on their school premises and entered the classrooms to write school test in Kalaburagi. The incident happened at the Government Urdu High School, off Jewargi Road in the city.
In Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, with prohibitory orders in place within a 200-metre radius of schools, classes resumed without interruptions. The genesis of the controversy was in Udupi district with some Muslim girl students not being allowed to enter classrooms wearing hijab. This had escalated after Hindu boys turned up in saffron shawls and insisting that they too should be allowed to wear them in classrooms if hijab could be allowed.
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Student’s memorandum
Shilpa, a second PU student at Government Pre University College for Girls at Udupi, where the dress code issue had begun, submitted a memorandum to the principal seeking resumption of classes at the earliest. Colleges in Karnataka will resume classes only on February 16.
She told mediapersons near the college in Udupi that classes have been suspended for the sake of an issue related to only six students. Other students should not be deprived of their classes.
The student claimed that the six students had last year (in 2021) tried to create an issue by ‘picking up an argument’ that they are not being allowed to speak in Urdu and Beary on the college campus. “Then we told them that we speak Tulu in the campus and nobody stopped us. You should not spread lies unnecessarily. Later, the matter died down, but then, the hijab issue cropped up in December 2021,” she claimed.
She alleged that they are being instigated. She claimed that girl students were not wearing hijab in classes earlier, and the issue had cropped up suddenly.
