An
Indian college announced on Monday it had banned girls from wearing
jeans, short dresses and T-shirts to crack down on s*xual harassment,
sparking outrage from pupils and rights campaigners.
The
Adarsh Women’s College in Haryana state, west of New Delhi, said that
students would be fined 100 rupees ($1.8, N284) each time they broke the
dress code.
“We
have imposed a ban on jeans and T-shirts because these are completely
Westernised and (so) are short dresses,” school head Alaka Sharma told
the NDTV news channel.
“The small dresses don’t cover students and that is the reason why they have to face eve-teasing.”
“Eve-teasing”
is a common phrase used in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan to cover
offences ranging from verbal abuse to sexual assault, though it is often
criticised as a euphemism that hides serious crime.
“Jeans and short tops invite attraction and also distract the students,” Sharma said in a separate interview.
Skinny
jeans, T-shirts and other Western fashions have rapidly grown in
popularity among young Indians, spreading from cities to rural states
such as Haryana, though many older people disapprove of such clothes.
Pupils
at the Adarsh college, which teaches girls between 16 and 19,
complained that they were being punished unfairly instead of being
protected from harassment.
“A
ban on wearing jeans and T-shirts doesn’t mean that there will be no
crimes and boys will not pass lewd comments on you,” Ritu, a college
student, said.
“Men
who want to eve-tease can do it if a girl has donned Indian clothes
also. I don’t think dressing in Indian attire will bring a change.”
Mamata
Sharma, head of the National Commission of Women, told reporters that
sexual harassment in India could not be tackled by ordering girls to
wear saris and other traditional styles of dress.
“Our
country is progressing, we have entered into 21st century and it is
very disappointing to hear or see such things,” she told reporters.
“The government should take action against the college management or such institutions who impose diktats on girls.”
In
Nigeria, University of Ilorin is one of the few educational
institutions who have introduced dress codes as parents continue
lamenting the kind of dresses girls put on while in school. Most of the
lamenting parents claiming their kids would never wear revealing dresses
at home.
Charity they say begins at home. How many girls do you think wear dresses they can put on at home while away at their schools?
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