Female public servants Can wear saree, ‘osariya’ or other decent dress

By Kelum Bandara

The Cabinet yesterday decided to amend the circular on the dress code for public servants, enabling them to wear any decent clothes without covering their faces. 

  In the aftermath of the Easter Sunday terror attack, the Public Administration Ministry issued a circular stipulating the saree or the ‘osariya’ as the dress for female workers. However, the dress code came to be highly criticised even from government sources calling it a violation of the workers’ human rights. There were complaints that some Muslim women who wore their Abaya with face veils were subjected to harassment at some work places.   

Meanwhile, Public Administration Ministry Secretary J.J. Ratnasiri was even questioned by the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) with the Cabinet now deciding to amend the new circular allowing female workers to wear the saree, ‘osariya’ or any other decent dress without covering faces.