By Ila Ananya
We’ve written time and again about ridiculous and bizarre dress codes for women. This time, in Kerala, it wasn’t even a dress code — a young woman taking the NEET exam for admission into undergraduate medical courses has said she was forced to remove her bra to be allowed to sit for the exam.
Why? For “security” purposes. You know, to prevent cheating. Don’t understand? We don’t either.
NDTV reports that the woman in Kannur was asked to remove her bra when the metal detector beeped because of the bra’s hooks. Her mother reportedly said, “My daughter went inside the centre only to return a few minutes later to hand over her bra.” And since dark coloured clothes weren’t allowed, she also had to run around to buy light coloured pants. Another student was told that the metal buttons on her jeans were a problem — her father reportedly cut off the buttons with a blade and sent her back. There was also a student who was asked to cut out the pockets of her jeans, and students in long sleeved clothes had to cut them. Some families living close to the NEET centres also tried to help candidates by offering them clothes.
According to NEET’s official website, the dress codes for women candidates were clear. They were supposed to wear “light clothes with half sleeves not having big buttons or brooch/badge or flowers, with salwar/trouser and slippers or sandals with low heels, not shoes.” We don’t know how any of these contribute to cheating (eg flower prints) or what else is left to wear in all the clothes we own.
Firspost reports that Mahila Congress President Bindhu Krishna has said that she will write to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to seek action against people responsible. “The ordeal is over but it is debatable how many female candidates would have been able to write the exam properly after they were subjected to so much humiliation,” she said.
We’ve heard of stupid dress codes, but we haven’t heard of this kind of behaviour before. And the worry of cheating is certainly not a reason to ask students to remove their bras or cut out their pockets — and nor is anything else.