Bengaluru resident Aishwarya told BuzzFeed she was recently returning home in a rickshaw while wearing a white, knee-length sundress, when the driver told her what she was wearing was "inappropriate".
"The metre was ₹40 but I asked him to keep ₹50, as it was hot outside," she said. "And then he looks at me for a second and says, "Please don't mind me but what you are wearing is inappropriate."
She said that Srikanth, the rickshaw driver, gave her permission to take and share his photo because he believed people would agree with him. "I told him clearly that as long as I am paying he has no right to tell me what I can or cannot wear. Then he gets out of the auto to tell me why I shouldn't be dressed like a slut."
As she was taking Srikanth's picture, Aishwarya said a few men gathered around her. "One man actually told me that the auto driver is right," she added. She explained that she just stood there shocked, adding, "This is the first time I have been so publicly slut shamed."
"Thankfully two men came from a junk food store I frequent and told the auto driver and the "moral police" that I get to wear what I want, when I want," she added. "It shouldn't matter what I was wearing but I am currently wearing a white summer frock that ends right before my knee."
"Apparently a girl who lives in a society like mine should be dressed more modestly and like a woman," she told BuzzFeed.
"I have faced street harassment before but I haven't been told that I need to dress differently by a stranger. I run in shorts in my building and this aunty who lives there told me that to wear proper clothes since boys also stay in the building."
Aishwarya posted about the incident on Facebook, and her post garnered more than 500 shares, before she made it private due to safety concerns.
"These men shamed me in front of my own home. It was disorienting," she told BuzzFeed.
UPDATE
This post has been updated to remove photos and some identifying details about Aishwarya upon her request, based on concerns for her safety.