India and Women

So another harrowing account of a woman’s experience while travelling around India based on a US student’s recent account of her travels – The Story You Never Wanted to Hear. Unfortunately if you ask most women and some of the men who are brave enough to admit it, there is nothing new being said here. India today is sadly a challenging place to be if you are a woman. Sure we have had powerful women at the helm of power but that has translated to nothing to women at all other levels of Indian society. I could never understand when I would read about incidents in rural areas where if villagers wanted to take retribution against another caste or section of their neighbours, they would strip the women and parade them naked. A swift and harsh punishment against this practise from Government would have brought this evil practise to an end but they just stayed away from getting their hands muddied in caste conflicts. It is not that things are better in the cities or towns. The horrific Delhi rape incident would prove this point. Just ask around and you will hear countless stories of women being groped in public transit as if they were asking to be treated as fruits and vegetable, simply for daring to be seen in public. Buses on college routes are the worst examples of such shameful behaviour from young adults. I shudder to think how our women can be safe in the future when our educated male youth behave so badly today.

These kind of poor attitudes can be difficult to change, almost impossible if simple measures are not taken sooner than later. One of the biggest reasons would be petty politics. I just wish certain political parties that claim to be India’s morality police simply stay away from preventing our system from educating our youth the right way and this would include proper sex education in schools. Preventing holding hands, exchanging greeting cards or even nude scenes from cinema are just stupid populist measures adopted by political parties that want to be seen to be doing right but just aggravate the problems. You just have to look at the population stats to know that Indians are spending way too much time procreating than creating an economic tiger that the world was expecting. And if we want to stop our image from taking such a battering at the world stage, our tourism brochures must inform our visitors of the harsh realities. They must highlight that women travellers have to be the most careful when travelling around the country. They should be advised to travel in groups, avoid forays late in the day, wear culture appropriate attire and understand that there are quite a few Indian men out there who just think that they as “goris” are fair game with their open smiles, loose clothing and white skin!

This disturbing male behaviour will not go away unless you educate the young mind at an early stage. And education does not and should not remain within the enclaves of schools and colleges. Families play the most important role in defining how women are treated. The pathetic stereotype of the docile Indian wife, subjected to abuse from the spouse and the in-laws, must stop. Educating the male child to respect the rights of women must be imparted at all growing stages and this cannot be successful if the child only sees the women in his family subjected to abuse. Parents must also ensure that the female child is taught about dangers that they face in public and allow them to learn to defend themselves either from self defense classes and moving about in groups. However there is still a vast majority of males who are outside the learning arms of the educational institutions and families. Mumbai’s example of allowing red light areas to function is also a sad yet vital instrument from preventing male urges to simply profligate without an avenue for release. Yes, this brings on its own set of societal problems and does very little for the upliftment of women. However, with the right regulation, the world’s oldest profession can be plied with better protection and safety measures for the players.

The only way to tackle this growing problem is strict enforcement of laws when atrocities against women are committed. Unfortunately this still remains one of the weakness links in the fight for crimes against women. The sad apathy of police forces that lack basic training to deal with such sensitive issues with tact and empathy only increases the problem. Even worse is when the police themselves are among the perpetrators of assaults against women. This can only be curtailed if more women police are hired, proper education and training is provided and harsh punishment is given to those that are supposed to keep our women safe. However the most important measure to lessen the mistreatment of women is to wage an all-out war against the horrendous practise of female infanticide. In most societies in India, the male population far outnumber the female population and this will only increase frustrated actions of a growing male class that will not be able to find their dwindling female partners. Sadly, Kerala has already proved that even though the women outnumber the men in the state, they still face abuse in the most literate state in India and that just says a lot of what an uphill fight the Indian woman has on her hands!