Shocking: School founded by Arundhati Roy's mother Mary behaves like a khap panchayat

After last week's controversy about an engineering college in Chennai issuing dress codes to its girl students, now a school in Kerala is getting flak for asking its boys and girls to maintain a distance of one metre between them.

A co-educational school in Kottayam has issued strict rules on how boys and girls should interact on campus. However, some of the rules on the school's website pallikoodam.org are surprising. The founder-principal of Pallikoodam is a social activist and writer Arundhati Roy’s mother, Mary Roy. Quite ironically, Roy famously fought for equal property rights for Syrian Christian women in the 80s.

According to the school’s website, girls and boys on the campus must maintain a one metre distance between them. The rules also clearly state that senior students are not allowed to befriend those in the junior classes. If these rules are flouted, punishment will be meted out, the school notice says.

The school has also issued what is an acceptable dress code on days when uniforms are not compulsory. Costume jewellery and perfume is also not acceptable. Neither are nose rings for girls. While the school has put up a notice on these rules of conduct, it also iterated that it wanted to foster a healthy relationship between boys and girls.