Kerala School Introduces Gender-Neutral Uniform

Recently a Government school in Kerala has introduced gender-neutral clothing to provide freedom to their students.

If we think closely, we’ll be aware of the fact that clothes don’t have an inherent gender, rather we attribute gender to it. As a result, in our conservative society, several people regardless of their age cannot express themselves truly. Which eventually also leads to identity crisis, self-esteem issues among others. If a girl wears trousers outside school, why can’t she wear them at school? A school in Balussery, Kozhikode has recently realised they had no answer to this question.

On Wednesday, Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Balussery, Kozhikode, adopted gender-neutral uniforms for students – purple trousers and striped white-and-blue shirts. The school in Balussery became the first government higher secondary school in Kerala to introduce unisex uniform for its students. And most of the students showed up wearing gender-neutral clothes to school the next day and they were elated about this change.

Principal R Indu revealed it was the girls who are now in Class 12 who first demanded that they should be allowed to wear the same uniform as the boys last year. “Later this was discussed at the PTA meeting, and the opinion was in favour of the girl students. However, only a few parents objected. But even their daughters are coming in shirts and trousers,” Indu said.

She said the idea behind this entire gender-neutral uniform was to give the girls the freedom they demanded from a dress code that they felt was uncomfortable. Moreover, they are free to wear full-sleeve shirts if they want, and an overcoat. Muslim students are free to wear a headscarf. Many protestants argued the whole idea behind this is to secretly introduce liberal ideology. However, the aim behind introducing unisex clothing is to give everyone the freedom of wearing whatever they feel comfortable in, as well as unapologetically embracing themselves.