No Country for Women

                                                                  Pic Courtesy: India Today

In India we are reminded rather frequently that women still do not have an access to safe public spaces. The Bangalore Incident that happened on 31^st December, 2016 which saw women out to celebrate New Year being groped, pawed and molested by hordes of men is a gruesome reminder of this very fact. While Delhi has been infamous as a rather unsafe place for women, the fact that other cities are faring well on this front is nothing but a well cultivated myth. Many recalling the city of Bangalore from a few decades back points out that women faced harassment on a regular basis even then. And in all these years, the scenario is not much changed.

What has also not changed in all these years is the public/private spatial divide. Right from the colonial period, private space and the privacy of home was considered the exclusive domain of women. And woman in public space happens when women deviate from where they normally should be. Men on the other hand feel entitled to public spaces. This has over the period of time created a gendered nature of public space. Women entering this space are entering a “man’s” world regulated by “man’s” rules. Any deviation from those rules entitles men to teach these ‘unruly’ women a lesson.

Such crime against women is not specific to any particular place. Be it in Mangalore where women in pub are beaten up by self appointed moral police, Guwahati where a young girl is harassed for wearing a skirt and visiting a pub at night, Delhi where a woman’s body is violated in the most gruesome way, Kolkata where a rape survivor was slut shamed, the story reads almost same. But is this only an urban affair where big cities give certain anonymity to many to carry out their notorious activities? The picture of two young girls hanged from a tree in Badaun after being raped is still fresh in our memory. Sexual violence against Dalit women, tribal women, women from minorities is used periodically to further marginalize these groups which are already languishing in the periphery.

The Bangalore incident and the various responses that followed have again raised certain issues – some are new while others are not very new. To start with, the incident where videos showing men grabbing a woman, groping her and when she resisted throwing her hard on the road, raised the question of safety or rather absence of it in the supposedly safe streets of Bangalore. Ministers were too quick to downplay the gravity of the situation. For the Home Minister of Karnataka, violation of the fundamental rights of women of access to safe public spaces ‘happens’. Celebration of ‘western’ festivals like New Year, Christmas leads to gathering of young people in large number and such incidents happen. It assumes that sexual assault and abuse does not happen at home or in more traditional settings. The large number of child sexual abuse proves it otherwise. Families and traditions re-entrench gender biases – something which we should overlook at our own peril.

Social media responded to the incident in its own way. While the hashtag #Notallmen made a case that it should be generalized that men are potential sexual abusers, the hashtag #Yesallwomen reasserted the fact that women across the board – from different class, caste and communal backgrounds run the risk of facing sexual abuse. Its this constant threat which binds them. Many men rightly pointed out that while all men do not endorse or indulge in violence against women, it is the responsibility of one and all to acknowledge the unequal power equation between men and women. Some rightly pointed out that while media focused on the Bangalore incident, its concern for TRP made it bypass the rapes of tribal women in Bastar. Media choosing metro cities’ news over peripheral areas (both geographically and psychologically) is nothing new. However being dismissive of molestation because it is not as grave as rape, is also problematic.

The local residents conveniently blamed the presence of a large number of ‘outsiders’.  By outsiders they meant both foreign nationals and migrant workers. However Shilpa Phadke of TISS who worked on gendered public spaces and made a case of inculcating the culture of ensuring the right to loiter for women, is of the view that the presence of lower class men and women in large number in public spaces in fact makes it safer.

While some were dismissive, others went on to victim blaming and accusing women that they were responsible for what happened. In a very expected way, blames were labeled on dresses which were too short (ironically a week later a woman in burqa was abused), the party timing which was too late, the occasion of New Year which was too western. The fact that the administration despite knowing the possibility of an unruly mob was not well prepared is overlooked. Police was largely outnumbered.

Every time such an incident happens, call for stricter laws and better implementation is echoed from every corner. Not so strict laws, indifferent and insensitive police officials, the terribly low conviction rate continue to be obstacles on the road to a gender just society. However we should not stop at the demand for stricter laws alone. With an institutional mechanism to nab sexual abuse and gender violence, we need a change in attitude. Perpetrators of gender violence must not feel that they can get away with it. Beliefs like “men will be men” put the onus to be cautious on women. Till the time the behavior and character of rape survivors are scrutinized, till the time same attributes makes a man a stud and a woman a slut, till the time man’s dominance of woman is an expression of masculinity, the problem will persist.

Sexual abuse and rapes are rarely about sex and always about power. The culture of asserting one’s right by violating the privacy of another with a belief that you can get away with it fuels such power play. The need of the hour is a change in our fundamental understanding of equality. Inculcating gender just values in children through academic institutions and other public institutions is a crucial step towards building an inclusive and safe society. The focus has to be on the continued gendered nature of public spaces and not the plunge of someone’s neckline or the height of someone’s hemline.