Mumbai: Pratik Permey, who made history by being elected as the first queer and north-eastern tribal student president at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), was recently asked to leave an Ambedkar Memorial Lecture event because of allegedly 'inappropriate' clothing.
Permey was backstage and was supposed to be present on stage with the rest of the panel as a student representative. That's when a teacher accompanied by a few men from the organising committee allegedly approached Permey and said, "In an event like this you cannot wear something like that."
"It would have been fine if the faculty had spoken about attire prior to the event. But they told this to me five minutes before the event," stated Permey while adding that they felt violated and humiliated.
Permey, 23, posted an Instagram video yesterday stating that they considered their outfit, a full-sleeved blouse with a skirt, appropriate enough. The only thing it bared was the midriff, said Permey in the video.
“As a tribal person, conservation of body parts was never a concern. The village that I came from has a lot of tribal people and they were comfortable with very minimal clothes,” Permey said.
