AHMEDABAD: The irony hasn’t escaped two Indian schools in Ahmedabad district, where Muslim and Hindu students are distinguished by their ‘uniforms’.
Muslim students are made to wear green uniforms while their Hindu classmates adorn saffron uniforms.
PHOTO: JAVED RAJA
Shahpur Public School and Dani Limda Public School are also unique for being the only English medium schools in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).
The uniforms at the Shahpur School, where most of the students are Hindu, are saffron-coloured, while the uniforms the Dani Limda school, where almost all the students are Muslim, are green.
The other 454 schools run by AMC, all non-English-medium, have the same blue-and-white uniform.
PHOTO: JAVED RAJA
School administration, however, has said the decision to use the two colours was taken without any prejudice. “The selection of green was a random decision and has nothing to do with any community. We had other options, of pink and blue, too but, keeping in mind the suitability to children, green was finalised,” AMC School Board Chairman Jagdish Bhavsar said.
He termed the selection of saffron for the Shahpur school as a “non-partisan decision” too, taken without any “prejudice or preference” towards a community or organisation.
More than 98% of the students at Dani Limda Public School, located in the middle of the Muslim-majority Kanubhai slum in Dani Limda village, are Muslim.
At Shahpur Public School, more than 95% students are Hindu.
Many took to Twitter to express grief over the discrimination faced by the students and how they were being divided by religion.
A story that should trouble us: http://t.co/NJR81cOs4v
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) April 14, 2015
#Ahmedabad: Saffron uniform for Hindu kids, green for Muslims http://t.co/6AzvmmPa8d The most shameful thing you'll ever see #GujaratModel
— David Saldanha (@inc24x7) April 15, 2015
School Apartheid in Gujrat: Saffron uniform for Hindu kids, green for Muslim http://t.co/p9EldRglbI
— Iqbal Haider Butt (@iqbutt) April 15, 2015
#Religion poisons everything #Indian kids infected with a seed of division long before they have a mind of their own http://t.co/lhONWLX4PN
— Hans Michael Hensel (@hmhensel) April 15, 2015
This article originally appeared on The Indian Express
The post In Ahmedabad schools, green uniforms for Muslims, saffron for Hindus appeared first on The Express Tribune.