Indian MP tells female tourists not to wear skirts for own safety

‘Women foreign visitors should not wear short dresses and skirts. Indian culture is different’

INDIA’S cultural and tourism minister has said female tourists visiting the country should not wear skirts or other “skimpy” clothes in order to ensure their safety.

Mahesh Sharma also said that women should refrain from going out at night.

“For their own safety, women foreign visitors should not wear short dresses and skirts. Indian culture is different from western culture” Mr Shar- ma said on Sunday in Agra, the city where the Taj Mahal is located.

The advice is to be included in a leaflet being prepared for foreign visitors ahead of India’s tourist season from October until March, the minister said.

Mr Sharma also advised women to record the registration number of the vehicles they used while in India and to forward it to their friends as an added safety measure.

This advice follows a number of high-profile rape cases, some involving foreigners, in Delhi and other Indian cities, many of which took place in taxis and other public transport.

The gang rape and murder of 23year-old student Jyoti Singh on a moving bus in the capital Delhi in December 2012 caused outrage and led to tougher rape laws, but has had little effect on the number of reported rapes. In 2015, police recorded an average of six reported rapes every day.

The minister yesterday attempted to downplay his remarks after they triggered public outrage.

“I have not given any specific in- structions regarding what they [female tourists] should wear or not wear” he said.

“We are not trying to change anybody’s preference,” he said.

“I am simply concerned,” he said, adding that his ministry was asking for- eigners to take precautions while going out at night.

Opposition parties and women’s rights activists condemned Mr Sharma’s comments as misogynistic.

Ranjana Kumari, of the Centre for Social Research, a women’s advocacy group, said the advice would merely serve to scare visitors off coming to the country.

“Women had greater freedom to wear clothes of their choice in Vedic times [3,000 years ago] than they have in [prime minister] Modi’s times” tweeted Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal. “India needs to ban such conservative ministers, not skirts,” tweeted a user also called Mahesh Sharma, while user Atishi Marlena said: “Maybe Sharma will soon ‘advise’ women not to step out of their homes.”

Mr Sharma had earlier stoked a similar sexist controversy by declaring that girls going out at night was against Indian culture.

“Girls wanting a night out may be all right elsewhere. But this is not a part of your [Indian] culture,” he said.