Bar Girls Union on Tuesday alleged that the Maharashtra government's decision to clamp a ban on dance bars had caste overtones.

"It's the apparent approval and appreciation received from the middle-class Brahmin community that appears to have driven Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil to stick to his decision," president of the union Varsha Kale said.

She was addressing journalists during a demonstration of bar girls at Azad Maidan in Mumbai.

"Almost 80 percent of the girls hail from the scheduled tribes," Kale claimed.

"The demand for a ban was basically motivated by the state's middle-class Brahmins, the so-called upholders of the moral values of the society," she alleged.

Kale said most of the girls hail from states like Andhra Pradesh where their families are basically commercial sex workers.

"Hence the ban would force these girls to go back to their traditional professions, benefiting some upper caste groups," she said, adding "such a proposal for a ban would not have been announced had the power wielders hailed from the lower caste."

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