Female students protest dress rules as Indian college bans jeans

MUMBAI: One of Mumbai´s best known colleges has banned female students from wearing ripped jeans, sparking the latest row against dress codes and curfews imposed on women that students say are discriminatory and sexist.

St Xavier´s College, which had previously forbidden female students from wearing shorts, sleeveless tops and short dresses, this month added ripped jeans to its list of banned clothing.  The Jesuit institution became the latest to incur the wrath of female students across the country who have been protesting rules that they say are discriminatory and distressing.

Most universities in India have a 6pm or 8pm curfew for women, while men have a later timing, or no curfew.

Universities also impose dress codes on women, limit or screen their male visitors, and have other rules that men don´t.

“In the name of safety, you can´t police women and impose these patriarchal, discriminatory rules,” said Devangana Kalita, a former Delhi University student who is part of Pinjra Tod, or break the cage, a Delhi-wide campaign protesting such rules.

“We want universities to recognise that we are adults, and that they should not be curbing our freedom and mobility.

Providing a safe environment for women goes beyond just imposing rules,” she said.

Calls to staff at St Xavier´s College for a comment on the recent ban were not returned.

The Dean of Student Welfare in Delhi University, J M Khurana, said he was not aware of Pinjra Tod and that he did not wish to comment on university rules.

The safety of women in India came under the spotlight after the fatal gang rape of a college student in New Delhi on a bus in December 2012 that sparked global outrage and led to the tightening of laws for crimes against women in India.