NEW DELHI: Taking a strong exception to the recent order of the Haryana education department which bars school teachers from wearing jeans to work, the Congress on Saturday dubbed Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar-led government ‘anti women’, claiming that he had made objectionable statement on women in the past as well.
“Be it Haryana or Madhya Pradesh, all the BJP-ruled states keep on issuing such decrees like what women should eat, how many children they should produce and what they should wear. It’s shameful that earlier too the Haryana Chief Minister had given objectionable statement on women. His thinking is anti-women. These kinds of decrees don’t surprise anymore as his thinking is anti-women,” All India Mahila Congress president Shobha Oza told ANI.
In a rather bizarre order issued by the Haryana education department last week, elementary and middle school teachers have been asked not to wear jeans to work or while visiting the Directorate in capital Chandigarh.
While the order said wearing jeans to work was not appropriate and the teachers should wear formal clothes, it did not attribute any particular reason for it.
In 2012, the women and child development department had also issued similar instructions, asking women employees to wear "decent" clothes while on the field.
The department order, which asked women employees to desist from wearing jeans and T-shirts to work and instead opt for salwar-kameez or saree, drew flak from various quarters. The order was later withdrawn.