Assam: 19-Year-Old Given Curtain to Wrap over Legs During Exam for Turning up in Shorts

A 19-year-old student, who had travelled with her father for about 70 kilometres for an examination in Assam's Tezpur, was made to wrap a curtain around her legs by authorities for wearing shorts to the centre.

According to a report in The Sentinel, the female candidate had come to the Girijananda Choudhury Pharmaceutical Sciences at Tezpur for the where she went through the ordeal.

The Indian Express reported that the candidate, Jublee Tamuli, had travelled for close to 70 kms along with her father to appear for Jorhat’s Assam Agricultural University (AAU) examination.

Tamuli told the newspaper that while security guards allowed her to enter the premises, the problem began in the examination hall where the invigilator told her she would not be allowed to appear for the examination dressed in shorts. She mentioned that the admit card did not stress on any dress code.

“A few days ago, I appeared for the NEET exam in the same town, wearing the exact same attire – nothing happened. Neither does the AAU have any rules about shorts, nor was there anything mentioned in the admit card. How was I to know?” she reportedly said.

When her protests were not heard, Tamuli ran to her father in tears. The Comptroller of the examination said she could appear for it if she could arrange for a pair of pants, which her father sourced from a market eight kilometres away while his daughter waited anxiously.

However, he returned to find a curtain around his daughter's legs. “They said that if I lacked basic common sense, how would I succeed in life,” she told the newspaper, adding: “They did not check for Covid protocols, masks or even temperature…but they checked for shorts.”

After going through what she described as the "most humiliating experience of my life", the 19-year-old has said she will write to state education minister Ranoj Pegu about the episode.