A school in London plans to allow boys to wear skirts. We say, Indian schools should follow suit

Because uniforms are about uniformity after all.

Sonaakshi Kohli Sonaakshi Kohli
मई 15, 2017
The English school will allow the boys to opt for a grey pleated skirt. Photo: Shutterstock/IndiaPicture

 

In a world where most of us are struggling to figure out our identities and are fighting for equal rights, the Highgate School in north London is on its way to making a great revolution in the arena of gender-neutrality and equality.

In a great move by the school, separate uniforms for girls and boys are being scrapped off in favour of a 'mix-and-match' policy. Currently, the school allows girls to wear a skirt, not the boys. However, now, they are planning to allow the boys to opt for a grey pleated skirt.

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Although the policy is yet to be implemented, we applaud the school authorities for going ahead with it despite reluctance and criticism from a lot of parents. "They write in and say if you left children to their own devices they would grow up differently and you are promoting the wrong ideas," headteacher Adam Pettitt told The Sunday Times.

While it's a great leap towards gender equality and neutrality, we feel in India, allowing school boys to wear skirts will serve an even greater cause. 

Boys can't understand PMS or experience our pain, but by wearing skirts, they would at least get an idea about the discomfort of girls face when clad in skirts--especially when rowdy characters can't stop ogling at our legs. We are anyway aware of the urgent need to sensitize most Indian men about the struggles that we face and teach them to respect women. Giving them a taste of it right from their early childhood days can prove to be a great step ahead in this direction, we say. 

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Moreover, imagine the kind of confidence they will gain by knowing how to pull off a skirt, which is usually seen as a 'girl thing' since their childhood. "If (as a result) they (the boys) feel happier and more secure in who they are, it must be a good thing", said Pettitt.

On a more serious note, it is imperative that our boys and girls stop looking at things with a binary perception and develop a sexist attitude in life. After all it's all about teaching our kids the concept of gender equality and gender neutrality since the very beginning so that they grow up to be sensible, non-discriminating adults with a broad mind.

 

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