An Indian village has banned women from using mobile phones in public in an attempt to restrict their contacts with men and plans hefty fines for violators, police said Wednesday. Village elders ruled that women found using a mobile phone outside their homes would be fined RS21,000, a sum it would take most rural Indians several months to earn. “We have received reports about the Khap ordering the ban on women using mobile phones,” local police chief Arun Kumar Singh said, referring to the informal village councils known as khap panchayats in India. “Such orders are against the constitution and we will take action.”The council believes that mobile phones are helping unmarried women to elope and that a ban will limit their interaction with men. “We do support their measures against illegal activities but won’t allow them to curb the freedom of women,” Singh said.

Source: Dhaka Tribune May 03, 2017 14:15 UTC