Mizoram Wants Decent School Dress Code

By Rahul Karmakar

Aizawl, Jan 29 : Trendy Mizoram has had enough of teen skin show. And for a change, the call for a decent dress code in educational institutions isn’t meant for girls only.

Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), the northeastern State’s potent students’ body, has formally asked the government to fix a design code for schools and colleges across Mizoram. The idea is to discourage girls from wearing leg-baring mini skirts and boys from donning underwear-exposing low-waist pants.

“Skin-showing dresses made fashionable by rappers and rock stars find their way to Mizoram almost instantly.

Even school children catch on to atrocious styles, going to the extent of tweaking their uniforms,” MZP president VL Krosshnehzova told Hindustan Times from State capital Aizawl.

“We have submitted a formal request to School Education Minister Lalsawta seeking the government’s help in fixing a design code for uniforms in educational institutes across Mizoram,” he added.

Lalsawta, who left for New Delhi, could not be contacted.

The church in predominantly Christian Mizoram feels MZP has a point. “Fashion may be a way of expressing oneself, but traditional values of modesty should also be upheld. We are happy the students themselves have realized this,” said Stephen Rotluanga, Bishop of Aizawl Diocese.

Other priests hole the dress code would also have a positive impact on the ‘cult madness’ in Mizoram. The state has at least 95 Christian cults, some espousing polygamy, others idolizing Satan and others specializing in grave digging and conducting ‘pagan rites’ with skulls.