Sharma told The Indian Express that she had decided to write the letter after the incident at the Tukhmirpur school. “The letter has been written to ensure that such an incident does not happen in schools under our jurisdiction,” she said. (Representational) The chairperson of the education committee of South Delhi Municipal Corporation, BJP councillor Nitika Sharma, has written to officials instructing them to ensure that no child comes to schools in “religious attire”.
This comes days after a parent of a Class VI student in a Delhi government school in Northeast Delhi’s Tukhmirpur complained to the area MLA that his daughter had been asked to remove her headscarf by her teacher.
Sharma, who is the councillor from Dwarka, stated in the letter: “School uniform is prescribed for children studying in the primary school running under the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, in which they look very beautiful. From time to time, the corporation keeps changing the colour of the uniform, due to which (uniform) there is no inferiority complex between the rich and poor children studying in school. It has been found recently that some parents send their children to school in religious attire, which is not right at all. This move will create a mentality of inequality among the children, which is not good for their future.”
Sharma told The Indian Express that she had decided to write the letter after the incident at the Tukhmirpur school. “The letter has been written to ensure that such an incident does not happen in schools under our jurisdiction,” she said.
Asked if the same rule would apply to students wearing turbans, she said, “No, that is different. Turbans are needed to tie hair. In every school, Sikhs come in turban and no correlation should be drawn.”
The letter further states that all zonal officers have to ensure that school children deviate from the school uniform only during competitions or festivities. “On normal days, students should be present in school only in the school uniform,” it said.
In Delhi, public schools are divided into two categories — those run by the Delhi government and those by municipal corporations. While municipal corporations can only run schools up to Class V, the Delhi government has no such restrictions.
All municipal school students have the option to shift to Delhi government schools in Class VI. There are 568 schools under the South MCD in which around 2.50 lakh children study.
The student in the Tukhmirpur school was in Class VI and had gone to the Delhi government school for the first time on Monday when the alleged incident took place.
On Thursday, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the matter was being politicised and that students from all religions were treated with dignity in Delhi government schools.
“Delhi schools have an excellent arrangement to teach students. Regarding this incident… attempts are being made to politicise the issue. In our schools, students of all religions and castes are treated with dignity. There is no restriction from our side and their traditions are respected. I also enquired how the incident had taken place, but so far I don’t think there is a problem… Our school system or education department has not imposed any restrictions in this regard,” he said.
The Delhi government education department, which does not govern the municipal schools, said they had no information about the SDMC order and said there are no such instructions in Delhi government schools.
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