One of the few Tax system!
The Breast Tax (Mulakkaram or mula-karam in Malayalam) was a tax imposed on the lower caste and untouchable Hindu women by the Kingdom of Travancore (Kerala, India) if they wanted to cover their breasts in public, until 1924.
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The Breast Tax (Mulakkaram or mula-karam in Malayalam) was a tax imposed on the lower caste and untouchable Hindu women by the Kingdom of Travancore (Kerala, India) if they wanted to cover their breasts in public, until 1924.
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The lower caste and untouchable women were expected to pay the government a tax on their breasts, as soon as they started developing breasts. The lower caste men had to pay a similar tax, called tala-karam, on their heads.
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Travancore tax collectors would visit every house to collect breast tax from any lower caste women who passed the age of puberty. The tax was evaluated by the tax collectors depending on the size of their breasts.
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The breast tax was supposedly forced by the landowning Brahmin king on lower-caste Hindu women, which was to be paid if they wanted to cover their breasts and was further assessed in proportion to the size of their breasts.
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