Abstract
In the middle of September 2021, a female candidate wearing ‘shorts’ (the so-called ‘half pant’), hailing from Biswanath Chariali, went to Tezpur to appear at an entrance test of Assam Agricultural University (AAU) at Girijananda Chowdhury Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (GIPS), one of the agencies of AAU. While the gatekeeper of GIPS gave her access, the invigilator on duty at the examination hall raised eyebrows on her ‘dress code’ but allowed her to sit in the examination, coercing her to drape a curtain to cover her legs. Doing so, the invigilator not only trespassed into her personal space— her body; humiliated her by lowering her dignity. This perspective is an attempt to revisit the debate of the dress code of Indian women, which refuses to die even in 21st Century India.
Highlights
Social and economic changes are ever-changing and pan-cultural phenomena
Alongside other socio-economic transformations, one can witness changes in dress code, which can be considered a normative standard of everyday life
In an interview with one of the local media channels, News18.com, the young girl who travelled from Biswanath Chariali to Tezpur, approximately 70 km (43.5 miles), to take the Agricultural University (AAU) entrance examination reveals that she called her father to go to the market to buy a full pant for her; the invigilator came with a curtain; asked her to drape the same to cover her legs and write the exam
Summary
Social and economic changes are ever-changing and pan-cultural phenomena. alongside other socio-economic transformations, one can witness changes in dress code, which can be considered a normative standard of everyday life. The women often become the victim of the changed ‘dress code'— the patriarchs, regardless of gender, remain ever-ready to dress the feminine body (Bandyopadhyay and Lahiri, 2012; Bhattacharyya, 2015).
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