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July 10th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Updated
The government of India’s Karnataka state has issued strict guidelines requiring women bartenders to wear “decent” clothes.
According to the guidelines, women bartenders must wear full-length trousers and a full-length shirt, with or without a blazer or a Punjabi suit, to “prevent indecent displays of their body.”
The Karnataka government issued the guidelines after bar and restaurant owners took legal action in a bid to stop police shutting down licensed premises that employed women.
The High Court in the state capital Bangalore ordered police to allow the hiring of women as bartenders after accepting the state government’s dress guidelines.
Police have been given the power to strip bars of their licences if female employees do not follow the new dress code.
The guidelines also prevent the hiring of women employees for dancing or any other form of entertainment.
In addition, they ban obscene behaviour by customers towards the women.
The Bangalore Ladies’ Working Bar and Restaurants Owners’ Association have taken legal action against the guidelines.
A lawyer for the association, R Gopalakrishna, says the owners would comply with the guidelines, but the new rules have imposed additional costs on bars and restaurants employing women.
“The guidelines will add to the operational cost of running a bar and restaurant, ” Mr Gopalakrishna said.
“Owners have to not only pay salary to the lady bartenders, but also provide a decent dress and arrange for their transport from home and back to ensure their safety and security.”
The guidelines are to be reviewed in three months.
AFP
Topics:
women,
sexuality,
sexual-offences,
workplace,
government-and-politics,
laws,
india,
asia
First posted
Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-10/an-indian-barwomen-ordered-to-wear-27decent27-clothes/4812816
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