Mumbai: Experts have welcomed the Maharashtra government’s move to revise its implementation of the “One State, One Uniform” policy. Decentralising the system for stitching and distributing school uniforms will enable supply of uniforms to schools in a timely manner, improve the quality, and bring down the cost, they said.
Following widespread criticism of the manner in which the scheme was implemented last year, the state government on Friday revised its implementation of the policy. Under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan of the central government, free uniforms are provided to students in grades 1 to 8 belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.
While the central government encourages a decentralised manner of stitching and distribution of the uniforms, the state government last year replaced the decentralised approach to distribution through school management committees (SMCs) with a centralised approach, where the state would carry out the task of stitching and distribution of the uniforms throughout for over 44 lakh students enrolled across Maharashtra government schools.
“However, due to challenges, complaints, and demands from stakeholders, including public representatives and teacher organisations, the government decided to revert to the decentralised model,” the state government said in a government resolution issued on Friday.
“The central government had anyways directed the state governments that the funds for the distribution of uniforms should directly be transferred to the last stakeholders, that are the SMCs. Last year, the then School Education Minister, Deepak Kesarkar, decided to centralise the system for reasons only known to him,” Vasant Kalpande, former director of education, Maharashtra government, told the FPJ.
“The centralised system led to lack of coordination, lowering of quality of uniforms, and even faulty uniforms, with some coming without zips, some coming without proper stitching, and in many cases, correct size uniforms not reaching the students,” he added.
The lack of coordination between the state vendors and schools also led to untimely delivery of uniforms. “The move to decentralise the process of distribution of uniforms will finally ensure timely delivery of uniforms. Now, with school sessions starting from April 1, SMCs will ensure that students receive their uniforms before that. Last year, some schools also received the uniforms of their students post Diwali,” said Mahendra Ganpule, president of the Maharashtra English School Trustees Association.
Last year’s decision to centralise the distribution of uniforms was heavily criticised, with the state government issuing “six resolutions within a year” to modify the policy.
“The government had to go back to the decentralised distribution because of the failure of the centralised system. The uniforms were not getting delivered on time, there were complaints of lower quality clothes, and because of all these reasons, the state government issued six resolutions within a year and the decision was always under scrutiny,” said Mahendra Ganpule, former head of the Maharashtra School Principals’ Association.
Design and colour scheme:
All eligible students will receive two uniforms in the same design and colour:
Boys: Sky-blue shirt with dark blue shorts or pants.
Girls: Sky-blue top with dark blue salwar or skirt. Or, a dark blue salwar and sky-blue kameez
SMCs to determine the specific uniform style for girls keeping in mind local preferences, choosing from: a shirt with a skirt, a shirt with a frock, or a salwar-kameez.
