Maharashtra govt revises ‘One State, One Uniform’ policy, school management committees to stitch, distribute uniforms

The GR further adds that individual SMCs will have the flexibility to decide the specific uniform style for girls, whether it be a shirt and skirt, a shirt and frock or a salwar-kameez, based on local preferences. The Maharashtra Prathamik Shikshan Parishad (MPSP) will provide the funds for the stitching and distribution process of uniforms.

Maharashtra project director of MPSP R Vimala explained that the decision to decentralize the process was made in response to the numerous challenges faced during the centralization of the policy.

“There were multiple factors that led to the issues we faced last year, which was also the first year of the ‘one state, one uniform’ policy. Instead of continuing with the new centralised practice, it has now been decided to decentralise the system as per the original practice,” she said.

Last year, the state’s school education department rolled out the ‘one state, one uniform’ policy under former school education minister Deepak Kesarkar. The plan aimed to standardize uniforms for students from Classes 1 to 8 across all government schools in Maharashtra. Apart from deciding on specifications of the standardised uniform, the policy also included a centralised process wherein state will manufacture and distribute uniforms to over 44 lakh students studying in government schools of Maharashtra.

However, the policy faced severe backlash due to several implementation issues, especially due to the centralized approach of state-wide implementation, sidelining local SMCs, which would traditionally have managed such tasks.

After the policy was announced, the centralised system was opposed, with many arguing that it robbed business chances from local women’s self-help groups, which would traditionally stitch these uniforms. Due to the debate and various changes to the policy along the lines, the uniforms were extremely delayed and most students from state government schools started this academic year without uniforms. Finally, when the uniforms arrived, they were found to be unfit and of poor quality, leading to an outcry.

Mahendra Ganpule, former head of the Maharashtra School Principals’ Association, noted that the government had issued six government resolutions in the past academic year, each modifying the policy due to persistent issues. “The state had no choice but to return to the original practice for effective implementation,” said Ganpule while adding that there was no objection to standardised uniform. “But it was impractical to implement this centrally on such a large scale,” he said.

Welcoming the change, Vijay Kombe from the Maharashtra Primary School Teachers Association, said, “The issues with the centralized system were raised multiple times, yet the government went ahead with it for this academic year, which led to more issues. Now, as the system of manufacturing and distribution is going back to the original system, students will receive better-quality uniforms on time.”