'We Lost Audit Points For Wearing Kalwas': Lenskart Employees Make Explosive Claims On Dress Code Discrimination

· Free Press Journal

Even as Lenskart CEO Peyush Bansal is reassuring the public that his eyewear company respects all forms of religious expression, two of his own employees have come out with very different stories. One says his team was penalised in a third-party audit for wearing kalwas, the sacred cotton thread tied on the wrist. Another spent nearly three months writing to the company's legal team about the bindi and tika policy before giving up on internal channels altogether and issuing a formal final notice threatening legal escalation. Together, their accounts mark ground-level evidence on dress code discrimination at Lenskart.

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'We lost audit points for wearing kalwas': The Pune store manager

Both of the employee accounts were shared by a user on X. The first account comes from a former manager of a flagship Lenskart store in Pune, Harsh Hatekar, who took to X to describe what he says was a direct, documented instance of the dress code being enforced against Hindu religious symbols.

"I was the manager of a flagship store in Pune. At Lenskart, third-party audits are conducted to check grooming standards. In October 2024, my store lost points specifically because we were wearing kalwas (sacred threads); the audit was conducted by a person named Ayush Verma," Hatekar wrote.

For those unaware, Kalwas are a sacred red or orange thread traditionally tied on the wrist. They are a common symbol of Hindu religious practice, worn particularly after visiting a temple or following a puja.

The second account comes from another Lenskart employee, whose identity has not been made public, wrote formally to the company's legal team raising concerns about the bindi and tika policy as far back as November 25 last year. Her email to the legal team is shared below:

Subject: Final Notice — Request for Immediate Action on Discriminatory Policy

To: Lenskart Legal Team

I am writing to express my profound disappointment regarding the complete lack of response to my repeated concerns, first raised on 25th November 2025, concerning the company's policy on Bindis and Tikas.

For nearly three months, my attempts to engage in constructive dialogue regarding my right to religious expression have been met with continued administrative silence. I must formally state that such inaction may be reasonably construed as tacit endorsement of a discriminatory policy that infringes upon my fundamental rights.

Please treat this communication as a formal and final notice. I am providing the company with 48 hours from receipt of this email to issue a substantive written response along with a clear and time-bound plan to review and rectify the said policy.

Failure to respond within the stipulated timeframe will leave me with no alternative but to escalate this grievance through appropriate external channels... [including] filing formal complaints before relevant labour and human rights authorities [and] seeking intervention from appropriate religious and civil bodies.

Taken alongside the Pune manager's account, the email suggests that the concerns about Lenskart's grooming policy were not merely a reaction to a viral document but had been festering within the organisation for months, with employees attempting to resolve them internally before resorting to public or legal channels.

It is important to note that Bansal has confirmed that the dress code rules were changed in February, probably a direct result of these complaints.

Lenskart dress code controversy comes alongside the TCS Nashik row

The controversy began when a user on X shared what she described as Lenskart's official Style Guide (Version 11.1, dated February 2). According to the guide, store employees were permitted to wear a black hijab and black turbans during their shifts. However, the same guide stated explicitly, "Religious tikka/tilak and Bindi/Sticker is not allowed." The document made no similar prohibition of any Islamic religious symbol.

'Hijab Is Allowed, Tika Is Banned': Lenskart Under Fire After Controversial Dress-Code Policy Goes Viral; CEO Peyush Bansal Responds

Facing a mounting backlash, Bansal responded, "The document currently circulating is an outdated internal training document. It is not an HR policy. That said, it contained an incorrect line about bindi/tilak that should never have been written and does not reflect our values or actual practice. When we discovered this on February 17, well before this became a public conversation, we immediately removed it. But I should have caught this earlier."

"Lenskart was built in Bharat, by Indians, for Indians. Every symbol and every tradition our people carry is a part of who we are as a company. I will never let that be compromised," Bansal explained.

The Lenskart controversery cropped up around the same time as the TCS Nashik scandal, that accuses Muslim employees of sexual exploitation and forced religious conversion.

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