{"id":60472,"date":"2026-04-18T20:41:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T15:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/officechai.com\/?p=60472"},"modified":"2026-04-18T20:41:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T15:11:43","slug":"lenskart-shares-updated-guidelines-allowing-bindis-and-kalawas-after-3-days-of-social-media-outrage-protests-at-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/officechai.com\/stories\/lenskart-shares-updated-guidelines-allowing-bindis-and-kalawas-after-3-days-of-social-media-outrage-protests-at-stores\/","title":{"rendered":"Lenskart Shares Updated Guidelines Allowing Bindis And Kalawas After 3 Days Of Social Media Outrage, Protests At Stores"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After three days of social media outrage — and some protests spilling into its stores across the country — Lenskart appears to have taken back its discriminatory dressing policies through which it allowed store employees to wear hijabs but not bindis or kalawas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lenskart has shared its updated guidelines for store employees. Under the new guidelines, Lenskart allows employees to wear “religious, cultural or family marks (such as bindi, tilak, sindoor and any other)”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Lenskart Religious Discrminiation Controversy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The issue had exploded on social media on 15th April when Lenskart’s style guidelines were leaked<\/a> on social media. As per the guidelines, employees were permitted to wear hijabs, but forbidden from showing symbols of Hindu identity including bindis, tikas or kalawas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The guidelines had caused a furore on X, with thousands of users calling out Lenskart for religious discrimination. The same day, CEO Peyush Bansal had shared an update on X, calling the document “inaccurate”, and indicating that it was “outdated”. He also added that the policy wasn’t actively enforced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this didn’t fly with social media users. The very next day, a former Lenskart employee named Akash Falake leaked a set of emails to OfficeChai<\/a> in which he’d been asking the company to revise its discriminatory policy since November last year, but his requests had been ignored by management. Falake had escalated the matter to Lenskart’s legal team, and had then loged a complaint with the Maharashtra government. He alleges that as soon he had lodged the official complaint, he was fired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protests escalate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lenskart did not react to this report — which essentially showed that CEO Peyush Bansal had attempted to mislead people with his previous claim about the policy not being enforced — and outrage against the company grew. Some people went to Lenskart’s stores and requested staff to shut them down to protest the policy. Others destroyed their Lenskart glasses and went to its stores to throw them in their dustbins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hello @lenskart<\/a> @peyushbansal<\/a> ye le moot diya tere namaji aur majhabi Chasme ko tod ke\u2026 tere hi dustbin me fenk diya\u2026

Us lens ko foonk diya jis lens se tu tera lllllah dekhta hu Subh uthkar pic.twitter.com\/JT3VQYDDTM<\/a><\/p>— Arpit (@ag_arpit1) April 17, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>