A news clip aired by an Assamese news channel, which went viral on social media, has equated young girls wearing shorts to monkeys. This has given rise to a heated debate in civil society in the northeastern state.


Assam boasts of traditionally empowering women, but the video aired by Pratidin Time opened with a shot of a monkey dressed in pants with a voice in the background saying in Assamese: "Monkeys have also started wearing clothes and know how to wash clothes, but girls in Guwahati now prefer wearing shorts for comfort. Maybe for them fashion means exposing, resulting in their attire which is shorter than needed."


The video has a number of clips of girls walking around the city in short dresses or wearing t-shirts and shorts.


Civil society members have protested against the channel and a peaceful march was organised in Guwahati on Sunday. But then inexplicably police arrested several of the protestors, booking them for "violating curfew" when no announcement of curfew was made.


The channel's editor-in-chief, Nitumoni Saikia, posted an apology on its Facebook page for "unintentionally hurting people's sentiments." "We are responsible for what was aired, but the packaging and some of the content (referring to the part about monkeys) were wrong. Warning has been given to the reporter regarding the matter not to repeat anything similar in future," Saikia told IANS.


Representational picture