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The Supreme Court Monday directed film industries and trade unions to immediately implement its order on putting an end to decade-old tradition that bars women from becoming a make-up artists.
It had earlier issued this directive for Maharashtra’s film industry, Bollywood, on a bunch of petitions by women make-up artists, who had been denied registration. Justice Dipak Misra expanded the scope of its judgment and said the court’s directions would be squarely applicable to film industries and trade unions in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal and Orissa.
The bench obligated the chief secretaries of the states to designate officers for ensuring its judgment of November 10 is implemented in “letter and spirit” and that all eligible women were granted make-up artist cards, apart from entitlement to work as hairdressers and costume stylists.
Before this judgment, only men were allowed to wield the brush while women could be hairdressers. The trade unions had argued that this was to ensure that the men are not deprived of work, but the court junked this tradition after describing it as a “taboo” stemming from acute “gender bias”. The court had held prohibiting women to pursue their career as make-up artists only on the basis of gender was “shocking” and violated constitutional values, besides taking away their right to have “equal opportunity as men”.
On Monday, the SC said its judgment would be applicable to similar industries across the country and that the states’ chief secretaries were required to file compliance affidavits in this regard. The next date for hearing on the matter is February 9.
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