Students of Government Tribal LP School Attathodu in Ranni of Pathanamthitta district in Kerala on Friday received gender neutral school uniforms. District collector Divya S Iyer distributed the uniforms and the collector attended the function wearing trousers and shirt. The collector sat with the students, who wore gender neutral uniforms (Three fourth shorts and shirt), on their school bench and took part in their Christmas celebrations.
This gender neutral uniform for the tribal students initiative was masterminded by the school's headmaster Biju Thomas. The parents of the school have also extended full support to it. The district collector and Ranni-Perunad gram panchayat president PS Mohanan also supported it. "Our school has 40 students and of them, 38 students are from tribal communities. Majority of them belong to the Malampandaram tribe. The clothes for the uniform were distributed by the state government and stitching was conducted by the school authorities with the help of an organisation," said the school headmaster.
This tribal school has already set many examples in the society for helping the tribal students. During the COVID-19 lockdown, over 25 tribal students of various schools staying in Ranni-Perunad gram panchayat didn't have any means for attending their online classes. At that time, this school sent their bus daily to take these students of various schools to the study centre set up by the panchayat and the villagers.
District collector Divya S Iyer said, "The distribution of gender neutral uniforms to the tribal students is a small step towards our efforts for ensuring gender equality in our society. These kinds of steps are definitely eye opening and inspirational. We need to travel more to achieve gender equality. Still there exist gender inequalities even in some homes in matters like serving food to their daughters and sons. When they serve more food to their sons, they are not ready to give the same quantity of food to their daughters. So we need to come forward to end such kinds of gender inequalities in our society, " the collector said.
