19 year old made to wrap curtain in exam hall as she turned up wearing shorts; Tezpur, Assam
What women wear, how they wear it, where they wear it, and why they should not wear it — are all burning issues in India. It’s one of those subjects that frequently raises its head in public spaces, workplaces, colleges, and universities, in the media, and everyone has a take on it.
In a very surprising incident that took place in Assam’s Tezpur town, a 19-year-old student, who turned up in shorts for an entrance test, was made to wrap a curtain around her legs to sit for the exam.
The incident took place Wednesday when Jublee Tamuli a 19-year-old aspirant appeared for the entrance exam of Jorhat’s Assam Agricultural University (AAU).
According to the student, she along with her father traveled from their hometown Biswanath Chariali to Tezpur, 70 km away, in the morning to be on time for the test.
According to Jublee, there was no restriction as she entered the exam venue – Girijananda Chowdhury Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (GIPS).
“While the security guards let me enter the premises, I was stopped by the invigilator at the exam hall. He said I would not be allowed to enter wearing shorts.”
According to Jublee, speaking to a media channel, said, that there was no such thing mentioned in the admit card about the dress code. “A few days ago, I appeared for the NEET exam in the same town, wearing the same attire – nothing happened. Neither does the AAU have any rules about shorts, nor was there anything mentioned in the admit card. How was I to know?” she said.
She was not allowed to sit for the exam, it was when she reached her father who was waiting outside the exam hall, “I went crying to my father who was waiting outside. Finally, the Controller of Exams said I could take the exam if a pair of pants could be arranged. So my father rushed to the market to buy a pair,” she said.
All the while, Jublee said she was losing precious time and feeling extremely harassed. Her father Babul Tamuli sourced a trouser from a market about 8 km away only to be told that the problem had been resolved: Jublee had been given a curtain to cover her legs.
“They said that if I lacked basic common sense, how would I succeed in life,” said Jublee, adding that it was “completely unfair”. “They did not check for Covid protocols, masks, or even temperature…but they checked for shorts,” she said.
Calling it the “most humiliating experience of my life”, Jublee said she plans to write to Assam Education Minister Ranoj Pegu about the episode.
She added that everyone had their own “comfort zone”. “If a boy wears a vest, no one says anything. Some men go around bare-bodied in public, and no one says a thing. But if a girl wears a pair of shorts, then people point fingers,” she said
However, she managed to complete her exam but she was not comfortable and cannot concentrate on her exam as the curtain was slipping off. It was indeed a very embarrassing moment for the 19-year-old young student who was denied appearing for the exam just because she was wearing shorts when a male candidate may have been allowed to wear any outfit of his choice.
