Karnataka: PUCL report reveals the negative impacts of the hijab ban, including Muslim women dropping out of schools and increased religious polarization.
A report released by human rights organization Peoples Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) on January 9 2023, marking one year of Hijab ban in Karnataka, revealed that Muslim women have dropped out of colleges and the classrooms have gotten polarized on the basis of religion. The PUCL’s Karnataka chapter undertook a study to investigate the impact of the imposed ban on the students and to examine the role played by authorities, administrative officials and police officials.
The report explains that Muslim women students were not only actively prevented from accessing their right to education, but also bore the brunt of a climate of hate, hostility and misinformation.
Students have faced humiliation and harassment in their own classrooms at the hands of their faculty, college administration and classmates.
Vigilante groups of Hindutva organisations have carried out a vilification campaign against hijab wearing students and the inaction of the government and police has given implicit encouragement to these fundamentalist forces.