HRD Minister on a “detox” drive: Reverses school winter break schedule, brings cheers to Christians

New Delhi, Nov. 1, 2004 – HRD Minister Arjun Singh’s crusade of “detoxification” or “desaffronization” took a step further when the HRD Ministry recently announced their decision to reverse the winter break schedule of schools across India as implemented by the previous NDA government.

The winter break for students of Kendriya Vidyalayas across India this year will begin on December 22, announced the HRD Ministry. Ministry sources say this is another of HRD minister Arjun Singh’s steps to meet the aims of “detoxification” and “secular education”.

In the last academic year, during MM Joshi’s tenure, the winter break — traditionally given between mid–December and January — was moved ahead to between January 5 and 19 for the 843 Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) schools.

The decision had come in for severe criticism from the Christian community which resented the denial of long winter holidays — always called Christmas holidays. Virtually every major Christian organization in the country had protested at the time.
“It was not just a matter of school holidays,” a senior HRD ministry official stated recently. “Thousands of Christian families plan their annual break around this vacation and go back to their native place for Christmas. That schedule got disrupted because the children did not have school holidays during that time.”

An HRD ministry note said: “The decision to change the schedule of the holidays has caused much inconvenience to the minority community, especially the Christian community, who celebrate Christmas during the period.” The winter break will now be from December 22 to January 1. “It is hoped the change will assuage the feelings of the minority community,” the HRD Ministry stated.

HRD Minister Arjun Singh justifying his ministry's decision to revert to the earlier winter vacation schedule for Kendriya Vidyalaya schools from Dec 22 to Jan 1, said, “The winter vacation had always been from Dec 22 to Jan 1. I don't know what message the previous regime wanted to send by changing it (to Jan 5–19)."

"Vacation is not a matter of just keeping schools closed, the welfare of students has to be taken into consideration," Singh said.

While the official reason for change of dates by the NDA government had been "excessive weather conditions" (first week of January being the coldest in northern states), many suspected a "saffron conspiracy". Some major Hindu festivals like Lohri, Pongal and Makar Sankranti occur between January 5 and 19. The decision was criticized as it allowed holidays during Hindu festivals, depriving Christian students and teachers from celebrating Christmas.