After Patna, jewellery traders in parts of Uttar Pradesh have barred the sale of jewellery to customers whose faces are fully or partially covered, citing security concerns amid a rise in theft, robbery and fraud at jewellery stores.
Jewellery shops across Bihar have now denied entry to customers wearing veils, burqas, hijabs, niqabs, masks or helmets, following directions issued by the All India Jewellers and Gold Federation (AIJGF). The rule came into force statewide from January 8.
Posters carrying “No Entry” warnings were visible outside jewellery shops in Patna earlier this week.
According to traders, soaring gold and silver prices have made jewellery stores increasingly vulnerable to crime.
Now, UP has also imposed a ban on the sale of jewellery to customers wearing a veil, burqa, mask or helmet.
Kamal Singh, district president of the Uttar Pradesh Jewellers Association (UPJA), also said, “We will not sell jewellery items to customers whose faces are covered. If a person with a covered face commits a crime, their identity cannot be established.”
“For this, we have put up posters in front of our shops, which state that entry into the shop is prohibited while wearing a mask, burqa, helmet, or veil,” he said, adding that the move was solely for safety.
Singh said customers wearing a hijab could uncover their faces upon entering the shop so jewellers could verify identity.
UPJA president Satya Narayan Seth said similar notices had been put up across districts including Jhansi and Varanasi, which alone has thousands of jewellery shops.
“The association is not opposing any person's religion,” Seth said. “Muslim customers can come wearing a burqa, but they should remove it before entering the shop so that their identity can be confirmed.”
Shahid, a jeweller from the Lohta area here, said that it is wrong to refuse entry to customers wearing burqas. Such a refusal will drive away customers. Asking a woman wearing a burqa to remove it would be insulting.
He said that theft committed while wearing a burqa is an exception, just like the incident where the chief minister of Bihar pulled a woman's burqa.
"If there is a female employee in the shop, she can see the woman's face, but a male employee cannot remove the woman's burqa to see her face; this is not right," he said.
Meanwhile, government advocate Rana Sanjeev Singh commented on the matter, saying that this is not a wrong act.
Recently, several incidents have surfaced on social media and in the media where women wearing burqas were caught on CCTV cameras stealing from jewellery shops and their identities could not be established due to the veil, he said.
Singh added that everyone has the right to their own security. There is nothing wrong with that.