GUWAHATI: A college in Assam, which insists that students should maintain decency, has banned the use of lipstick by girls within its campus.
The decision has triggered furore, not just from students but also the state government. The diktat was issued by Ghana Kanta Barua College, located in central Assam’s Morigaon district.
The college authorities denied having issued the edict, which was seen pasted on the college notice board on Wednesday.
“It was not our decision and we do not know who did it. We are probing it,” Bishnuprasad Upadhay, principal of the college, said.
Sources told Express that the “notice” was issued by the college students’ union to “rescue the institute from becoming a place of fashion and protect Assamese culture”. Its leaders were not available for comments.
“Nobody can take away an individual’s rights and personal liberty. If this has happened somewhere, government will do the needful,” the state’s education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma warned while talking to reporters.
The girl students of the college were miffed that they were being “victimised”.
“Why target only the girls? What about the boys, who also do all that they can in the name of fashion?” asked some girl students.
“In this age of equality, you should apply the same yardstick,” they insisted.
Three-time former chief minister Tarun Gogoi has always maintained that lipstick is a “development” index.
“If the women in Assam are using high-end lipstick, it means the economic condition of people has improved,” Gogoi had once said during the third term of his erstwhile Congress government.