Nighty ban in AP village, women not to file complaint

A fishermen village, Thokalapalli in the Nidamarru block of West Godavari district of coastal Andhra Pradesh, has barred women from wearing nightie during the daytime. The ban was announced through traditional drum beat on Thursday.

A day after the ban the district administration visited the village only to be told by the women that they will not disobey the rule imposed by the village elders.

The rule is that women can wear nighties only between 7 pm and 7 am. Women violating the rule would be fined for Rs 2,000 and anybody who helps in bringing such violator to book would be rewarded with Rs 1,000. On Friday, Nidamarru Tahasildar M S Raju and Sub Inspector M Vijay Kumar visited the village and met women. However, none of the 2,400 odd women in the village came forward to resist the weird rule.

"We conducted inquiry in the village about the undemocratic rule. But, men in the village denied having imposed any such rule and women refused to complain,” Vijay Kumar said. As per a written statement of a woman G V Lakshmi, the rule was actually initiated by women as some men have expressed that they feel uncomfortable around women as the women moving in the neighbourhood in nighties. “Many are going to shops in nighties making the men feel uneasy,” she said.

However, police point out that the men in the dead end village of Kolleru lake move around in shorts and lungis. The police say that the only thing they can do is to carry out a vigorous campaign against such rules.