Bodo girls in traditional dress at a function

Kokrajhar, Jan. 18: The influential All Bodo Students’ Union (Absu) today imposed a dress code on girl students from classes VIII to XII, making it binding on them to wear the traditional dokhna to both Bodo and English medium schools.

A resolution to this effect was adopted at the 35th annual convention of the Kokrajhar district unit of the Absu at Patgaon here.

The resolution stated that every Bodo girl studying in a Bodo or English medium school should wear dokhna as a uniform.

The convention, through another resolution, demanded that the Bodo language should be made a compulsory subject for every Bodo student studying in Assamese and Bengali medium schools.

The new Bodo Accord stipulates that the Bodo language will be the official language of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC).

However, this is subject to the condition that Assamese and English would also continue to be used for official purposes.

Addressing the open session of the convention, Rajya Sabha MP Urkhao Gwra Brahma said the Bodo language has scaled new heights following its inclusion in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

This would provide an opportunity to Bodo students to sit for national competitive examinations in the Bodo medium, Brahma said.

He, however, expressed regret that the performance level of Bodo medium schools of the district is very low and stressed the need for improving the standards by incorporating institutional change.

The open session, chaired by president of the Kokrajhar district unit of the Absu, Gautom Mushahary, was also addressed, among others, by BTC chief executive member Hagrama Mohilary, Absu president Rabiram Narzary and Bodo Sahitya Sabha president Brajendra Brahma.

The convention also resolved to form district-level education vigilance committees to keep an eye on the field of education and all activities of the student community.

Now that leaders of the disbanded Bodo Liberation Tigers are taking up the reins of the new Bodo administrative set-up, Absu president Rabiram Narzary had charted a broader role for the student union in the new set-up.

Narzary said the student union would keep a close watch on the functioning of the BTC and implementation of the accord.

He, however, expressed the hope that the BTC would be able to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of the Bodo people.

The convention also demanded that vacant posts of Bodo teachers be immediately filled up in the schools.