The Uttar Pradesh State Women’s Commission has recommended making it mandatory for tailoring shops, salons and gyms to appoint women employees to attend to women customers as a shield against the problem of “bad touch”.

In a proposal to the state government, the commission has also suggested that school and college buses that ferry female students have women staff and that CCTVs be installed at every coaching centre, gym and hairdressing salon.

“Male tailors shouldn’t be allowed to measure a female customer: there should be a female tailor. Women (customers) must give written consent at a gym or tailoring shop if they are fine with a male trainer or male tailor,” commission chairperson Babita Chauhan told reporters.

“Several complaints of bad touch and ill intentions are pending with us. Several unpleasant incidents have taken place with women at gyms and other places. We need to look for a permanent solution…. If there is a gym for women, why shouldn’t the owner have women employees there?”

She clarified: “What we are saying is that it isn’t a problem if the tailor is male, but only women should take
(women’s) measurements.”

Chauhan said she was aware that “trained women will have to be employed at all these places and this might take some time” but added that the move “would also help employ more women”.

“We had agreed on this proposal (within the commission) on October 28,” she said.

The proposal is pending with the Yogi Adityanath government.

Himani Agrawal, a member of the commission, said: “We want the government to make a law to this effect, sooner rather than later.”

A woman customer at a Lucknow gym told reporters she supported the proposal. “We’ll be comfortable if there are female employees to train us,” she said, declining to give her name.

Samajwadi Party MLA Ragini Sonkar, however, said it should be left to individuals to decide which store or gym they want to go to.

“I don’t think this is a justified decision as it should be an individual choice whether one prefers a male or a female to attend to them,” the MLA from Machhlishahr in Jaunpur district said.

Social workers Veena Sharma and Mohsina Choudhary welcomed the proposal, saying there were many complaints of women being harassed while being measured at tailoring shops. They said the proposal should be turned into law. Sharma is the Muzaffarnagar district coordinator of Mission Shakti — a government initiative for women’s empowerment — and Choudhary is a former member of the district child
welfare board.

Additional reporting by PTI