Porbandar police tell women to ‘dress appropriately’

In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged parents to turn their scrutiny on sons instead of daughters. Perhaps his advice came a tad too late for the Porbandar police, who resorted to the cliché of giving moral lessons to women on attire.

The district police had displayed a poster at a function on August 12 bearing the slogan, “Do not step out of the house in inappropriate clothing” in Gujarati. It depicted a group of young women in denims and t-shirts.

Ironically enough, the poster carrying the title ‘Mahila Sashaktikaran’ (women’s empowerment) was on display at an event to mark the State government’s women’s empowerment week.

Heads of the police department and the State government delivered speeches on the occasion.

“It was just a small poster among several others displayed at the police hall during a two-hour meeting to celebrate women’s empowerment week. The poster does not mention the word ‘women’,” Ranchod Hadiya, deputy superintendent of police, Porbandar, told The Hindu .

However, when pointed out that it depicted women, Mr. Hadiya said, “One of the officers downloaded the poster from the Internet. It was a mistake. Actually it should have said wear ‘sanskari’ [cultured] attire. There were several other posters and the media only picked on this one.”