The clamour for reforms in our schooling system is incessant. For myself, I only want to see one simple change – to do away with all things white in school uniform.

Shroud of childhood

Whoever thought that white was suitable for a child must be made to do the laundry for two boys for one school year. White is ok as a bridal gown in a dust free country. Our Nethas can afford to maintain external appearance of purity with immaculate white outfits. They can even bring out a white paper on black money. But kids?

Children need to run around, play, be free to explore. Clothing them in white and expecting them to be free of grass stain, ink blots, dirt patches, fruit drip marks is simply cruel. How could a child enjoy its childhood if he has to fuss about spotless shirts? And a nation where the child fears and focuses only on external appearance, at the expense of inquisitiveness is shrouding its future in certain failure.

Strains of stains

As a child has no vote or a voice, let me restate my “white out” demand with two another pitches. The stains on white uniforms are too hard to remove and many a mother labours over – pre-soaking, soaking, brushing, scrubbing and hand washing. Not to mention the liquid blue colouring that is added to hide the yellow bleedings of the white fabric. I would bet that the calluses in many an old lady’s hands are from washing the whites. Why not put an end to such unwanted womanual strains?

Strong soaps are needed to fight off stains. The many advertisements, flashed endlessly, have created a vivid visual of the noble fights against the bad-elements of dirt and stains that afflict white clothes. Amway liquids, Surf Excel, Rin whitener all cash-in on this cleaning mania, without much strain. And where do all these chemicals go? Only back to the water system - polluting drinking water. The white clothes of today are shrouding our grand children’s water safety for tomorrow.

What collar do you choose?

Putting up good external appearance is costly to us now and worse, the kids will pay for the wrong lessons they may be taught – revering the white collar. The khakis and the blues are very much essential and we are inadvertently practicing elitism and white washing it as progress.

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