In an interesting development, scores of girls from Dudaherdi village in Muzaffarnagar district made a bonfire of jeans and tops on Sunday evening and resolved not to wear outfits that are not “traditionally Indian”.
The first all women panchayat held in Dudaherdi village with participation from Moghpur, Mansoorpur and another half a dozen adjoining villages in the district, ratified the decision of another panchayat held earlier in Asra village in Baghpat in which a code of conduct had been laid down for women.
Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Ms Sohanviri, who has been mobilising support for boycott of jeans and cell pho-nes, by young women, appealed to the women to adhere to the resolve which was “in the interest of wo-men of the particular social environment they live in”.
The panchayat also decried the sections of media that were “waging a war for women” and seem-ed determined to see wom-en dressed shabbily and in western attires for reasons best known to them.
Ms Sohanviri, while referring to a series of talk shows on various TV channels said, “We have never ever gone out and told anyone to wear salwar-kurta. It is their choice and so let them wear what they want to. I am surprised how people have got together to object to the decision that we had taken. Who are these people to tell us what to wear and what not to wear? Those living in western countries do not wear salwar-kurta but we ape their dresses because we suffer from an inferiority complex.”