Ahead of Christmas celebrations, a District Education Officer in Madhya Pradesh has said that “written permission” from the parents or guardian is necessary for students to wear Christmas-related costume in skits or fancy dress events.
A circular — in Hindi — issued by the District Education Officer of Shajapur across schools reads, “Students should not be made part of Christmas-related events, including making them dress up or play roles like Santa Claus and Christmas tree without the written consent of parents, to prevent any untoward incident,” NDTV quoted the circular.
The circular warns the schools to take actions aligning with the communication made, adding that, disciplinary action will be taken against the organisation if there are any complaints in this regard.
District Education Officer Vivek Dubey said although most of the times events are held amicably, sometimes there are disputes and complaints, which are brought to him.
Speaking to ANI, Dubey said, “Cultural programs are held in schools but the programs are a little religious and children of other faiths are also assigned religious characters to play which is not as per their own religion. Most of the time such events are held harmoniously but sometimes it leads to disputes and complaints come to us…”
He said that this order has been issued in an effort to prevent any such disputes from taking place in the future. He said that all the institutions can conduct religious programs but they shall refrain from making children of “other faiths indulge in skits or fancy dress events”.
“If it is essential then they do so only with written permission from the guardians,” Dubey said.
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