Assamese news channel targets women wearing shorts, apologises after outrage

A newsclip run by an Assamese channel has irked social media users. In the controversial clip, the channel equates girls with monkeys and targets them for wearing skimpy clothes. 

The video opens with a voice over in Assamese saying,  "Monkeys have also started wearing clothes , but girls in Guwahati now prefer wearing shorts for comfort. Maybe for them fashion means exposing, resulting in their attire which is shorter than needed." Facing outrage, the news channel Pratidin Time has now removed it from its website but the clip is available on YouTube. The clip was uploaded almost a month ago, but outrage started a few days back on social media.

On Sunday, according to reports local organisations organised a peaceful march in Guwahati. However police arrested the protestors claiming they were violating curfew, though no such prior announcement was given. 

Minakshi Bujarbaruah, a researcher and gender rights activist, said to news agency IANS that ,"Privacy is being violated. Nowadays, we are more scared of the media than the police because you never know when and where mediapersons will catch us and shame us, in the name of news."

The video is about four minutes long and it shows young women walking around Guwahati in shorts, t-shirts. It also shows local people saying that such attire is not acceptable in northeast culture. The channel's editor-in-chief, Nitumoni Saikia, posted an apology on its Facebook page for "unintentionally hurting people's sentiments."

However, he appeared to justify the story. "Will you go to a wedding to "naamghar" (traditional Assamese prayer hall) wearing a pair of shorts? No. Some things will never be a part of or be welcomed into Assamese society," Mr Saikia asserted.