Hijab row linked Udupi College sees jump in Muslims enrollment

Story by  ATV | Posted by  Aasha Khosa • 1 Years ago
A teacher counselling girls about school uniform in Udupi college (File)
A teacher counselling girls about school uniform in Udupi college (File)

 

Rakesh Chaurasia / New Delhi

The Karnataka College in Udipi that was in the center of the Hijab controversy as six of its students went to the Court to upturn the government’s directive against wearing any religious apparel including Hijab to Colleges, has seen a rise in the number of Muslim women student seeking admission for a new session.
 
According to MLA Raghupati Bhat, who is also the College Development Committee President, there has been an increase in the number of Muslim girl students seeking admission to the Government Women's Pre-University College in Udupi this year.
 
It may be recalled that six women students of the college had approached the court seeking permission to wear a hijab while attending classes. Even after the Karnataka High Court didn’t permit them, they choose to miss their final examination as they continued to insist on wearing Hijab.
 
According to a report, there was a general perception that in the upcoming session, the number of Muslim girl students would decrease due to the hijab controversy. However, 40 girl students have taken admitted in the first year of PUC the college. The students are not wearing Hijab inside the classrooms.
 
The BJP MLA said the said college registered good results in the last academic year despite disruption in studies due to the hijab controversy. Meanwhile, the Government First Class College at Uppinangadi in Dakshina Kannada district revoked the suspension of six girls, who were suspended last week for insisting on wearing the hijab.

Sources in the College Development Committee said that the suspended students gave an undertaking on Wednesday that they would follow the dress code. Sources said that the students attended classes on Wednesday.
 
In March, the High Court dismissed the petitions of six women students who sought permission to wear the hijab inside the classroom. The High Court had said that the “fixation of school uniform is only a reasonable restriction, constitutionally permissible, to which girl students cannot object to.”
 
The development only proves the ephemeral nature of the artificially generated controversies with the help of the Indian New television channels.