Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Terming jeans foreign apparel, Shahdol divisional Commissioner Rajeev Sharma advocated for the indigenous ethnic wear ‘dhoti’.
A pair of Jeans requires a lot of water for washing, while Indian attire ‘dhoti’ suits Indian climate, said the commissioner while addressing around 100 tribal students including girls at a computer training centre in Kotma, merely eight km away from the divisional headquarters.
“Jeans is not our attire, rather Dhoti is our apparel. Earlier men and women both used to wear dhoti as per the climatic conditions of the area,’ said the commissioner. The video of the official advocating wearing ‘Dhoti’ has gone viral on social media.
On being contacted by ‘Free Press’, the commissioner said that he had not advocated to wear or discard any particular attire. Rather he wants that tribal’s should take pride in wearing their ethnic dress and not be ashamed of it, said Sharma.
He was of the view that when the tribals come out of their society they get tempted to the modern outfits. “I want to instill the feeling of pride in wearing the indigenous clothes,” the commissioner said.
Stating that at home, he wears Kurta, Pyjama and Dhoti, the official said that dhoti has been designed as per climatic conditions of the area and jeans, particularly skin tight, is not skin friendly.
“ I have made the students my ambassador to propagate the message to others,” he said.
Sharma said that he is also encouraging the tribal students to speak their local dialects just like Marathi and Tamil people who take pride in speaking in their dialect.
The tribals should not speak their dialects or else it would gradually slip into oblivion, the commissioner said.
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