JOIN USNow, dress code for bar waitresses
The Home department has come out with a dress code for women serving liquor at bars and other places of public entertainment.
The dress code, which is part of a set of guidelines for places of entertainment, will have to be approved by the licensing authority - the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike or Town Municipal Council.
According to the new rules, all outlets will have to seek a prior approval from the competent authority to employ women. The women employees need to be 21 years of age or more.
The prescribed dress code, according to the guidelines, is: “A decent uniform comprising full trousers and full shirts/T shirts with or without a blazer or a salwar kameez with dupatta (without vulgar display of the body).”
A model of the attire should be approved by the licensing authority and the women employees should mandatorily wear the uniform during duty hours. The rules also provide that particulars of women employees - proof of address and age, permanent residence and photograph - should be submitted to the jurisdictional police station and Labour department within 30 days of obtaining the licence. Details of fresh appointments and resignations should also be submitted to the two authorities.
The employer has to verify the veracity of the documents submitted by the employees. The details of the women employees shall not be disclosed to anyone.
Explaining the rationale for the guidelines, the notification says: “A number of instances have come to the notice of the police, wherein women employed in liquor houses are indulging in singing, dancing, indulging in avoidable conversation with the customers and indecent display of their bodies, giving scope for unruly situations. Hence, a need to issue guidelines.”
Bar on hiring
The government has banned hiring of men, women and transgenders for dancing or any kind of entertainment.
Obscene gestures directed at women employees - flinging of currency notes, offering any kind of inducement, passing indecent or lewd remarks or any other indecent communication electronically or any other such act shall not be permitted.
Taking photograph/video of the employees has been forbidden. All laws applicable for sexual harassment at workplaces shall be applicable to these women employees. More importantly, the employer has to provide them secure transport - from their residence to place of work and back.
All the establishments should have continuous CCTV camera (minimum 24 mega pixel) surveillance at the corridors and the entrance.
Back-up storage of the CCTV footage shall be maintained for a minimum of three months. The establishments are allowed to avail the services of licensed private security agencies.
The term of the licence is fixed at one year. The guidelines, however, do not specify any timings. But it says, “It shall be open as per the conditions in the licence issued by the government from time to time.”
Bars and other places of public entertainment have been given 60 days’ time to comply with the guidelines.