Khaps can't suppress women's rights to move or work: Tirath

Women and child minister (WCD) Krishna Tirath on Friday said khap panchayats cannot suppress the rights of women in the country to move and dress as they like.

Women and child development minister (WCD) Krishna Tirath on Friday said khap panchayats cannot suppress the rights of women in the country to move and dress as they like.

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"The khap panchayats have their own structure but it is expected that they will not issue such diktats.

"Women in the country have the freedom to go anwhere they want, wear clothes of their choice, carry mobiles and work in professions they want to," Tirath, who was in Indore, told PTI over phone.

"Nobody can force women to cover their heads or faces or stop them from working against their will," she said when asked for her comments on the diktats issued by a panchayat in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat area banning love marriages and barring women below 40 years of age from going out for shopping and using mobile phones outside their homes.

Tirath also demanded police action against the people found guilty of molestation of a girl in Guwahati.