Saree traders from Varanasi (Banares) have decided to send about two dozen pieces to the item girls of Bollywood -- Rakhi Sawant and Meghna Naidu -- to enable them to "dress properly". The volunteers from the Vandemataram Sangharsh Samiti, a social organization, went around the saree market early this week carrying posters of scantily clad Rakhi Sawant and Meghna Naidu and "begged" the traders to donate sarees for the item girls. "These girls obviously do not have sufficient clothes to cover their bodies and remain almost naked. Since Varanasi is a major center of the saree trade, we thought it would be a good idea to ask the local traders to donate sarees which will be sent by courier to Rakhi Sawant and Meghna Naidu so that they can at least cover themselves properly," said Anoop Jaiswal, president of Vandemataram Sangharsh Samiti.
Mr Jaiswal said that while most heroines in the Hindi film industry have started dressing in an "inappropriate manner" and showing skin, Rakhi Sawant and Meghna Naidu had "crossed all limits of decency". These item girls appear in such scanty dresses in public places and on television that we feel uncomfortable even watching them. They are also creating a bad impression among teenagers, who tend to copy these stars. We thought we must send a strong message across to these girls and we hope that they will behave more decently after they receive our sarees and our message. If they continue to wear skimpy clothes, we will resort to other means of protest," Jaiswal threatened.
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Meanwhile, the samiti volunteers said they found saree traders responded very positively to their campaign. "Not even a single trader refused to donate sarees for this cause. In fact, some of them even gave two sarees for these item girls. The sarees sent to the two item girls are made of chiffons, georgettes, and even silk, a volunteer added.
A saree trader said that he had readily donated the sarees because he felt the youth involved in the campaign were behaving rather responsibly. "I was touched by the fact that the younger generation is concerned about such issues so I gave two sarees instead of one. I hope such campaigns will drill some sense into the heads of stars that flaunt their bodies so shamelessly".
