MP: Headcount, not headscarf, is worrying principal of school in Muslim-majority locality

Sharing the bench with Zoya is Shrishti Shrivastav, who sports a red tikka on her forehead. The tikka is something Shrishti puts up from a temple on her way to school every day. While the two wait for their teacher to come in, their friend Sadaf Khan, with her head covered in a white hijab, joins them.

Much like Shrishti, Shrant Prajapati, a Class 11 student in the biology stream, has often viewed the hijab or the burqa as something that his classmates wore to protect themselves. “They feel protected and safe wearing a headscarf and I do not see any problem with it. They often walk to school and men ogle at them. If wearing a scarf makes them feel protected, there is no one who should have any problem with it,” says Shrant.

Outside their classrooms, students roam the courtyard with boys dressed in white shirts and blue trousers along with ties, while the girls are wearing blue tops paired with white trousers and white dupattas. Several uniformed girls come with their heads covered in hijabs, while some others come wearing burqas over their uniform.

The scene is no different outside their school. Hijab-wearing students from nearby schools can be seen crammed into tiny electric rickshaws plying the narrow bylanes of Nishatpura. Zoya began wearing a hijab to school from Class 8.

Pushing the students to abide by a stringent dress code is the last thing principal S K Upadhyay would want to do. “Our aim is to teach students and minimize the numbers of dropouts irrespective of their identity,” he says. “If students wear the hijab or burqa owing to their religious inclinations, we allow them because they are coming to school to get education. Our girls come wearing hijabs as well as burqas with uniforms underneath. We allow them to sit in the class in the same attire.”

For Zoya’s friend Sadaf, however, the hijab is not as much a matter of choice. “My parents will not allow me to head out if I don’t cover my head with a hijab. It does make you feel protected. But if at all the school bars us from wearing hijabs, I will step out wearing a hijab and remove it once I’m inside the school so that my parents will not know about it,” says Sadaf, the youngest of four siblings.

The challenge for the school has been getting the students to return to classrooms after the pandemic-induced disruption. Despite the government allowing schools to reopen with 50 per cent capacity, attendance is thin, not unlike in many other schools in the Madhya Pradesh capital. The low attendance and a possibility of a high dropout rate are beginning to worry the principal.
“Many students, especially those in higher secondary classes, took up menial jobs earning anywhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000 during the pandemic to contribute to their family incomes. Fewer than 20 per cent of students have returned to classes. Now my concern is to get all my students back to their classes,” says Upadhyay.

According to Upadhyaya, the school caters to lower-middle-class children, with around 40 per cent of its 600-odd students belonging to the Muslim community.

Upadhyay says discouraging hijabs and burqas could lead to many students dropping out. Some of them might even shun the hijab but would not still be comfortable and unable to concentrate on studies, he says. “Our main aim is to give education and encourage the children to study,” he adds.

And Shrishti Shrivastava, the Class 9 student echoes her principal, “There has never been any restriction in our school on wearing the hijab or burqa. All we are told is that we should ensure it is white in colour, to go with the uniform. The students should be allowed to wear what they are comfortable in,” she says.