Recently, the nursing head of a major hospital was quoted in a newspaper, saying “A patient takes his/her experience with the nurse back with him after discharge. If it’s good, he/she is definitely going to talk about the hospital and recommend it to other patients.”u00a0To facilitate this, city hospitals are not giving better pay and work conditions so nurses are in a good mood, or providing some new training. Instead they aim to change the face of the medical industry, through makeovers for nurses.

So, nurses at Kokilaben Ambani Hospital will wear a light foundation cream, maroon lipstick, and single-drop pearl earrings, while at the Hiranandani Hospital they will appear with pear ear studs, like girls in Dutch paintings, and pearl necklaces, like the Queen of England, with flesh-coloured (whose flesh colour?) lip gloss and black eye-liner.

The hospitals assert this is not about glamour, but neatness. To avoid any ambiguity, they clarify, “Nurses often forget that, for women, neat and tidy means well-shaped eye brows, threaded lips and waxed hands.” u00a0They’re clearly oblivious to the irony that the very place, which sees how varied human bodies are, seeks to impose this homogenous idea of female “neatness.” What you want to do with your body hair really should not be anyone’s business. And why is it that doctors can come as they are, but for nurses its their appearance, not their ability, which is in focus?

Illustration/ Amit Bandre