I have lost count of how many times I have read and heard that , Delhi is unsafe for women. Delhi our very own capital city, which ranks second in the tally of crime against women with horrifying figures which double, triple and quadruple year after year. While we keep a tally of all the rape and harassment cases, one crime that goes unnoticed but takes place almost everyday, is the evil of eve teasing.
According to Wikipedia, Eve teasing is defined as the euphemisms used in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan for public sexual harassment, street harassment or molestation of women by men. A quick grab, a strange shoulder bump, a sneaky pinch, men cat call, men making kissing noises and singing lewd songs, and even the “hey sexy” and “I love you’s” you hear are all means of eve teasing. And it is not restricted to the underbelly of the state, but prevails far and wide among all social strata’s.
The root cause of this evil is the latent curiosity in this class of cowardly male to touch and torment. They perceive women to be second rate citizens, an easy prey, demure, helpless, and submissive. Someone who doesn’t have rights roam around at free will, who doesn’t have a right to her own opinion and who “deserves” to be eve teased and punished.
Every morning I get ready for college making sure that I don’t dress lewdly or adorn anything revealing so as to avoid any unwanted male attention. Despite of the discrete efforts on my part, my day stands incomplete till the time I hear somebody whistle of pass some remarks when I use public transport, or walk my way back home. There are times I wonder, could the hemline of a girl’s skirt be the measure of her safety and her confidence when she steps out of her house? If so, no wonder Delhi girls prefer wearing jeans even in summer.
After all this, at times I question myself
“Do I feel unsafe?”
No I don’t. I don’t feel scared or unsafe but I do feel disgusted.
The rise in crime against women is an evidence of the persisting sexist society in our country. Even today we struggle with sexism in the highest corridors of power. No matter how much we preach of equality and development we cannot deny the fact that gender inequality exists even today. a place where on one hand we worship Durga and Lakshmi and on the other we see men beating up their wives to death, berating them as they would an animal.
Elders say, the keyword is “ignore”, and that’s what girls have been doing for so long. The worst is that eve teasing is still a grey area. Though Sec 298(A) and (B),Sec 292 and Sec 509 law down rules in this regard but they are neither stringent nor of any use because there are hardly any F.I.R’s filed against eve teasers. But the question is, can we keep making excuses and keep our eyes closed to the malaise among this lot? , Must we not show them what’s right and what’s wrong?
Perhaps they would understand when they themselves are subjected to such an act. Thus I believe it is imperative not to run away from such hassles but to confront them with any means and tools at hand.So that we all can make Delhi a safer place to live in.
One step which i feel we(guys) all can take is that atleast we(i mean socially aware guys ) should not indulge in such malaise and protest against it as when required, and even try our friends(boys) to refrain from it...
ReplyDeleteLike its said "Charity Begins at Home", if we all do out lil bit then surely we can bring about the some change if not a drastic one..
@Jennifer: The situation of women security is equally bad in most parts f north India, its jus that statistics are available for our city and Delhi girls are strong enough to be not be subdued by these crimes..
reason of dis problem still persisting and the solution to it is in ur lines only
ReplyDelete"Though Sec 298(A) and (B),Sec 292 and Sec 509 law down rules in this regard but they are neither stringent nor of any use because there are hardly any F.I.R’s filed against eve teasers"
;-)