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A special council in northern India is banning girls from wearing jeans and using mobile phones. The council says if the girls do not comply, they will be kept at home by force.

A caste council in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh, has ordered girls be banned from wearing jeans and using mobile phones. The council says (QUOTE) "objectionable clothes" invite unwanted attention for girls.

[Baba Sitaram, Head, Village Council]:
"This outfit is against our culture; we will not allow it to happen."

Council members say that unsavory incidents have increased in the region.

The Battisa Khap Council head says a team of women had been created to enforce the new orders.

The council says if a girl ignores the rules she will get a warning, and if the behavior continues, she will be kept at home.

Some say the rule is only for village women.

[Ichha, College Student]:
"Nowadays it is a modern society and who can stop it? People like us cannot stop it. We can only keep bounds on ourselves. But we cannot bind people in the cities."

Meanwhile, the federal Minister of Women and Child Development says the rule is not legal.

[Krishna Tirath, Minister, Women and Child Development]:
"I think our constitution has given full freedom to everyone for eating, living and doing anything he wants. So according to our Constitution, this is totally unacceptable."

Despite the law, such incidents of curbing women's freedom are commonplace, especially in the remote villages states such as Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.