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Deeksha Gupta*
The other day, when I was watching the news on the television, I saw the news of five to six men eve-teasing a woman in the busy streets of the market, and the people around her didn’t even come to help, instead they had their phones out and were recording the whole incident. Have we become that shallow of a person that instead of helping her, we are filming the scene or are we as humans not doing enough for their safety even in broad daylight? In the busy streets? Is humanity lagging? Isn’t it a major social issue that needs to be addressed quickly?
(AI generated from Canva)
We live in a country where we offer prayers to Goddess Lakshmi, Durga, Kali, and Saraswati, where women are considered to be the goddesses and still, there is several violence against women happening each day from eve-teasing to rape to domestic violence to harassment to trafficking to many crimes that are too horrific to even think. According to the reports of research by the longdom site done in India, 65% of Indian men believe women should tolerate violence to keep the family together, and women sometimes deserve to be beaten. And the thinking of men that women deserve to get beaten is the evil that we need to eliminate from society. According to NCRB report, India has recorded 51 cases of crime against women every hour, which is almost over 4.4 lakh cases in a year, these are the cases that have been taken into consideration but the real figures are still unknown and the cases are touching the sky. Whether it’s an adult an elderly woman or a mere two-year-old girl, no one is safe, both inside as well as outside of the house, inside the house, they become victims of marital rape, family harassment, domestic violence, and outside they become victims of eve-teasing to unnecessary touching to tolerating sexual remarks, the list goes on, the crimes go on and the silence grew on. Whether it is outside or inside the house women are not safe anywhere, and the statistics show that. Are we not taking enough initiative? The question is whose thinking we should change, men who think that women are just sources of pleasure and enjoyment or women who sacrifice their lives by keeping their voice in silence?
The government has taken many initiatives for the safety of women, from the PoSH Act in 2013 to the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 to the Indecent Representation of Women Prohibition Act to protect children from sexual offenses to various movements that have been campaigned, be it #CallItOut because #ItsNotOK campaign, #MeToo movement, that facilitate knowledge transfer and coordinate efforts towards the prevention of harassment against women. But after all this crime is not decreasing, but they are at its peak, and the main reason is the patriarchal mindsets of humans, this patricahy has developed this thinking that men are superior and due to this they take advantage of women.
Today both boys and girls need proper counseling sessions, and knowledge of good touch, and bad touch, they should be taught to speak up and raise their voices against these crimes, but no, due to not having proper awareness the crimes are skyrocketing. It’s high time, we as empowered citizens come forward and start taking initiatives to prevent these horrific crimes against women, Let create a safe space for women, and let us speak up and stop this happening near us. Together let’s protect women. Their safety isn’t just a social issue but a moral issue too and it’s about it not just surviving their best lives, thriving not fighting.
*Deeksha Gupta, BJMC- SEM 3
