After shorts & sleeveless, Mumbai’s St. Xavier’s college bans ripped jeans

After banning shorts and sleeveless t-shirts, St. Xavier’s college has now restricted students from wearing ripped jeans in college premises in a bid to ‘maintain decorum’.

Located in Mumbai’s Dhobi Talao area, the St. Xavier’s is one of the most reputed colleges in the city. In the past, the college had banned students from shorts and sleeveless t-shirts, a move that had not gone down well with it’s liberal students.

Last week, students were surprised to learn that ripped jeans has also made it to the list of ‘banned clothing’, after the management put up a notice announcing the same outside the college gate.

The college principal, Agnelo Menezes, maintains that the decision was taken to maintain decorum. In one interview, he also claimed that apart from looking vulgar, ripped jeans ‘make a mockery of the poor’.

During previous years, the college would even relax the dressing restrictions during the three-day annual festival. But Menezes disallowed female college students from wearing shorts during this year’s festival.

While the decision to ban ripped jeans hasn’t gone down well with some, others were indifferent. Out of the three students we spoke to, two did not think much of the decision since they didn’t fancy ripped jeans anyway.

For Arun Shukla (name changed), who hails from Delhi, the notice created a bit of a problem.

“I have 5 jeans, of which 4 are ripped. Because of this rule, I now have to call my parents and ask them to send some money so I can buy new jeans. Personally, I don’t really see a reason behind banning jeans. What if someone’s jeans gets torn by accident?”

Incidentally, St Xavier’s isn’t the only college in the country, or city for that matter, that has imposed certain restrictions on dressing.

However, their policy is a stark contrast from a majority of other colleges, where most restrictions are placed on just female students.