It's not about the right to wear, but the right thing to do

There’s an angry debate over the Indian woman and the ‘right to wear’ what she wants, fuelled by comments by a (male) DGP and a (woman) minister. “Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police Dinesh Reddy’s comments about women who dress in ‘flimsy and fashionable’ clothing provoking men to harass them did not go down well with working women across urban India. More recently, Karnataka’s Women and Child Welfare Minister CC Patil caused a furore when he said, “I don’t favour women wearing provocative clothes and always feel they need to be dignified in whatever they wear,” says The Times of India. The issue has become about the right of women to wear what they want – and it appears that neither the Andhra DGP nor the Karnataka minister succeeded in their communication. [caption id=“attachment_170941” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The issue has become about the right of women to wear what they want. Reuters”]  [/caption] It’s not about the right – it’s more about the right thing to do. A mini-skirt in South Mumbai would be perfectly acceptable – and not at all ‘provocative’. However, the same mini-skirt worn by the same girl would be mildly ‘provocative’ in Bandra East, even more ‘provocative’ in  Jogeshwari East and scandalous in Virar East. Does the girl in question have the ‘right’ to wear the mini-skirt in all these locations? Yes, she does. Is it the right attire in all these locations from the point of view of local tastes and sensitivities and social mores? No; the ‘rightness’ decreases as she moves from Bandra to Jogeshwari to Virar. Before you take offense at this, pause for a moment. How often do we hear, in our houses, that some clothes are not suitable on a visit to a particular relative’s house, out of consideration for the fact that he or she has a different take on the appropriateness? Why do so many Indian men not smoke or drink in the presence of older relatives? One could go on and on. In neither of the instances outlined above is the ‘right’ to do something being debated. You have a legal ‘right’ to wear what you want and to smoke and to drink – yet one chooses to forget about the right and yield to doing what is right. That’s what the issue is about. It’s not about the absolute, legal right. It’s having consideration for those who might not be comfortable with your sense of right. We do this every day in our humdrum lives, giving up legal rights to accommodate a social more. It can never be a case that it is acceptable to molest/assault/rape a woman because of what she wears. These abominable acts are not sanctioned by anyone – never mind what the dress mode is. Wear whatever you choose to wear – but do be conscious of whether it is the right thing to wear.