Amid growing protests against the Kerala government’s decision to introduce the fitness dance form Zumba in schools, the state’s Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led government has said it would not budge.
The government had announced introducing Zumba in schools earlier this year. The decision has triggered protests from religious outfits such as SAMSATHA, which has a high stake in religious education in Kerala and outside the state. The outfits claim that the move would adversely affect morality.
On Saturday, the protests swelled after more organisations came out against it.
CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby told media in Kozhikode that organisations had the right to make comments on issues including in the education sector, “religion should be kept away from education”.
“Children should grow mingling with one another. Those who oppose should rethink their stand. In a secular country, religion should be kept away from public education. They can comment on issues, but they should not dictate terms on education,” he said.
Meanwhile, the government too doubled down, calling the protest “more dangerous than the drug menace” and that it was “more dangerous than the drug menace”.
“Certain quarters have come out against Zumba, which is being introduced in schools as part of anti-drug initiatives,” Education minister and CPI(M) leader V Sivankutty said. “What is being held in schools is a short physical fitness programme. Students are performing Zumba in their uniforms.”
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He further said: “According to the Right to Education (Act), it is mandatory for all students to take part in learning activities suggested by the government. Parents have no choice in it. According to the rules, the teachers have the responsibility to undertake activities per orders of the education department. Nobody has asked the students to wear revealing dresses and participate in Zumba”.
The minister also shared videos of students of two schools in Muslim-majority areas performing Zumba in uniform wearing headscarves. Higher education minister Dr R Bindu also shared a video of college students — including Catholic nuns — dancing to music at a college in Irinjalakuda in Thrissur.
The protest against Zumba will take Kerala to the dark ages, he said.
This came on a day when Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen state president Hussain Madavoor once again made his objections known.
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“Girls and boys dancing in revealing dresses will adversely affect their mental status. Even if they are performing Zumba in school uniform, we cannot agree that girls and boys dance together,” he said.
Likewise, Wisdom Islamic Organisation general secretary T K Ashraf said children are not being sent to school “perform mixed dance”.
“There may be people who see Zumba dancing as progressive (but) it is highly deplorable to depict those who oppose Zumba as extremists and retrogressive,” he said.
This isn’t the first time that there were protests against some of the CPI (M)-led government’s gender-neutral policies. The government’s attempt introducing gender neutral uniforms in schools and plans to do away with separate benches for girls and boys in schools also met a brick wall.
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Meanwhile, CPI(M) general secretary M. A Baby was accused of promoting atheism in school textbooks when he was the education minister from 2006 to 2011 and was forced to withdraw one textbook.
The Zumba row is another litmus test for the CPI(M) regime, which, after its disastrous showing in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, has been leaving no chance to attack “Islamic extremism”.
