In Cochin University’s engineering schools, uniforms no longer bound by gender

Young women in grey churidar pants, blue kurtas and grey overcoats have walked into the engineering campus of the Cochin University year after year. All that while, their male classmates wore grey pants and blue shirts. Now, an order passed by the the Cochin University of Science and Technology (or CUSAT) last week is bringing a sort of revolutionary change to the rules of these uniforms. Not that they will go away, but that any student, regardless of what gender they identify with, could choose either of the two options from the first of June. This means female students could opt to wear pants and shirts if they want to, and male students the kurtas. Transgender students also get their pick.

The order, the students who fought for it know, may raise many brows and bring obstacles. But this is the University that had only months ago allowed menstrual leave, giving a leeway of two percent in the mandatory attendance of classes to female students. “We had to fight both times. But this one, for the gender neutral uniforms, was a bigger fight,” says Namita George, chairperson of the students’ union.

Watch: How CUSAT allowed menstrual leave

Conversations around gender neutral uniforms had for long been happening on the CUSAT campus. Yet, it was not easy convincing every different group of students, faculty, and the various departments at the varsity. “We first spoke to the principal of the engineering college Dipak Kumar Sahoo. He was fine with it. But we had to get approval from all the student organisations, and permission from every department,” Namita says.

There were some concerns. Some wondered if it would mean women will be forced to wear pants and shirts. No, they wouldn’t, the students’ council members explained. It was a choice. Yet another concern raised by many was if any of the male students would start wearing kurtas and churidars. Few seemed to care about women wearing pants, the bigger worry seemed to be about the male students switching to clothes traditionally worn by women.

The uniform neutrality is also meant to make it easy for transgender students who identify with a gender different from that assigned to them at birth.

“We want to take the lead in making campuses gender-friendly. The menstrual leave that was sanctioned earlier and now the gender neutral uniforms are all part of that. The request for gender neutral uniforms came from the students’ union and I took it to the school council, which comprises all permanent faculty members. They unanimously agreed to the idea,” says the principal of the engineering college in CUSAT.

Not all departments within the University mandate uniforms. The engineering college, college of legal studies, department of computer applications, and a few other courses demand it. Of these, the engineering college, with more than 3,000 students, is the largest.

“We know it is not going to be easy, but that is how progress has always been made,” Namita says.