Sexism In Indian Schools: An issue which is rarely spoken about
By: Madhura Arora
Tags: Edu, Sexism, Society, Schools, India

A school is a place which plays a vital role in weaving a child’s personality. If a child witnesses the normalization of a certain kind of behaviour, he or she would tend to overlook it at even later stages of life. A common trend in Indian schools as soon as the stage of elementary education commences has been that of a differential behaviour between boys and girls. This is where the promotion of sexism actually begins.

Girls even before they hit puberty, are constantly told to walk or sit in a certain manner, so that they can be categorized as feminine, while boys, on the other hand, are taught to be tough and sporty so that seeds of manliness can be sowed in them. This has given a rise to the promotion of various stereotypes and is also the reason why most Indian people have a completely prejudiced behaviour towards the entire spectrum of the LGBTQ+ community.

Sliding into middle schools, students are often told to not care much about their looks, as they come to school to get educated in a uniform, with a proper dress code. The major issue with school dress codes is that they solely exist for girls or are selectively enforced. Case in point, most schools that have skirts for girls and shorts for boys as their respective uniforms, generally have a ‘knee-length or below’ rule for the girls and no such rules for boys. Usually, girls who have their skirts somewhat above their knees are constantly shamed. Their character is judged based on the length of their skirt. Some schools change the dress code for girls as they go into higher grades from a skirt to salwar kameez because they want girls to be aware how to dress in a “modest way” so that their bodies don’t catch male attention. When schools ask young girls to cover their skin because it is provoking a male student, a message is sent that pubescent girls should be highly aware of their bodies and how boys might come to see it sexually and telling them it is their responsibility to prevent that. Although this may seem trivial, this idea is what later manifests and becomes the basis for our collective victim-blaming behaviour and promotion of rape culture.

Boys are also called out for piercing their ears or doing anything that does not conform to the conventional gender norms set by a society that is overwhelmingly obsessed with the gender binary and refuses to accept identities that exist outside of it.

Let’s talk about how schools deal with something as natural as menstruation. Several schools conduct separate workshops with various brands like Stayfree or Whisper which actively exclude boys to teach the girls alone how to deal with this biological occurrence. Firstly, in such workshops, menstruation is often referred to as a problem and not a biological process. This is another reason why society has always had a prejudiced attitude towards the female body. Secondly, girls are told to conceal their sanitary pads from males, which creates a sense of shame which follows these girls back into the male-dominated world. This also inculcates a lack of gender sensitivity and gives rise to the notion that women have to remain hush about something that affects them and their bodies at periodic intervals.

The common discourse around fixing the school system is mostly focused on the need for sex education. However, schools need to realise that they are not teaching their students to perform their ascribed gender roles. Schools need to work towards creating an environment wherein nobody feels ashamed or excluded. Be it boys who like to wear ear-rings or girls who are tough and most importantly the LGBTQ community. When we start having these conversations, we’ll automatically start heading towards a more accepting society.