RAJAHMUNDRY: For the past nine months, women in a village in AP’s West Godavari district have stopped wearing the innocuous, flowing ‘nightie’ during the day. Thanks to a diktat by the village elders who decided that nighties are meant only for night.The nine-member committee of elders of Tokalapalli village even have a carrot-andstick strategy in place to ensure none of the 1,800-odd women disobey their diktat. Any woman found wearing a nightie between 7am and 7pm is fined Rs 2,000 and anyone who snitches on such women is given a ?1,000 reward. Though the diktat was issued about nine months ago, it went viral on social media only on Thursday after which revenue officials visited the village for an inquiry on Friday.When TOI visited Tokalapalli on Friday, some villagers said the elders had threatened a social boycott if the guilty did not pay penalty. They also said that they had been told not to tell government officials anything. Tokalapalli sarpanch Fantasia Mahalakshmi told TOI that washing clothes in the open, going to grocery shops and attending meetings in a nightie “is not good”. She maintained that some women had approached elders for a ban. She denied imposing ban or threatening social boycott of women who violated the rule.

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