Top News

Karnataka govt withdrew its 2022 order restricting religious attire in schools and issued new guidelines allowing faith-based symbols with uniforms. Students may wear hijab, turban, sacred threads, rudraksha etc if they do not alter uniform or discipline. No student can be denied entry; policy stresses equality and non-discrimination after a sacred thread incident.

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has withdrawn a February 5, 2022, order on school and college uniforms and issued fresh guidelines permitting students to wear "limited traditional and faith-based symbols" with prescribed uniforms.

The move, implemented with immediate effect, comes after an April 24 incident in which a student's sacred thread was allegedly cut at a school.

The then BJP government in Karnataka had, in February 2022, issued an order prohibiting the wearing of hijabs in classrooms.

An order issued by the Congress government in Karnataka said that students "are permitted to wear limited traditional and custom-based symbols with the prescribed uniform". "However, such traditional and custom-based symbols must be complementary to the uniform and must not alter, modify, or defeat the original purpose of the prescribed uniform," it said.