Jeans Have “Bad Effect” on Women: UP Khap Panchayat

Legal News India: A khap panchayat in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, has prohibited girls from wearing jeans, claiming that the attire had a “bad effect” on them. The panchayat head, Baba Suraj, passed this diktat on grounds that jeans provoked incidents of eve-teasing and encouraged couples to elope.

Supporting this decision, Mahendra Singh, the Baliyan Khap Council head, said that disallowing girls to wear jeans was a right verdict which would also curb “bad effects” on the village youth. Singh has appealed to other khap panchayats to implement the same.

For implementation of the ban, the Battisa khap council has formed a five-member women committee who kept a lookout on girls moving out of their homes.

Earlier the khap panchayat had banned single girls from using cell phones in an attempt to stop intra-gotra marriages.