Post date: Jun 06, 2013 9:33:50 PM
Mumbai plans to ban the use of bikini-clad mannequins in lingerie shop displays as a way of trying to prevent sexual assaults after a string of violence attacks across India.
MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA (JUNE 06, 2013) (ANI) - Mumbai on Thursday (June 6, 2013) endorsed a proposal to ban the use of bikini-clad mannequins in the shop windows as a way of trying to stop sex crimes in the wake of several assaults on women in recent months.
The 227 member Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) voted to support the ban and it is now being considered by the BMC's Chief Executive.The ban was spearheaded by a member of the corporation Ritu Tawade who said mannequins wearing lingerie should not be displayed openly.
"This must be stopped because firstly, it affects the children and secondly the minds of all the perverts in the society gets fuelled by them and they commit crimes on women," she said.
Shopkeepers however said that the ban is ridiculous.
"This is completely wrong because this kind of display on mannequins (of) undergarments (has) been there for many years," said Viren Shah, President of the Federation of Traders Welfare Association.
"It is wrong to say that mannequin makes dirty remarks and mannequins make people to lead to crime and rapes and all those things. There are so many other items, numbers, there are posters, hoardings, which are there, there are big newspaper advertisements are there for lingerie and they are with the live model. This is only mannequin and plastic bodies, this does not affect anything."
Some view the ban as an example of how morally conservative politicians and orthodox bureaucrats are aiming to solve India's problems in their own manner.
In recent months a string of sexual crimes against women have drawn national attention in a country where a rape is reported on average every 20 minutes.
The brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old Indian woman on a bus on December 16 inNew Delhi sparked a global outcry and brought thousands of people onto the streets of India in protest, demanding better policing to prevent sex crimes. The trainee physiotherapist later died from her injuries.
The latest incident is the gang rape of an American tourist in Manali region of the hilly northern state of Himachal Pradesh. Police are also currently investigating the recent alleged rape of a 21-year-old Irish woman working as a volunteer with a non-governmental organisation in West Bengal.