Woman harassment has become a
national issue nowadays. This seems to be a question about the humanity, safety
and the law which has been built up in the Indian constitution. I never understand that when the matter comes
about woman safety why is it just
been dropped out from the laws or by the people in general.
According to Indian
constitution, women are equal and legal citizens of
this country and they do share an equivalent right
with men (in the Indian Parliament). Then why is it that they have to fight for
their right? Just because of improper acceptance from this male dominant
society, Indian women suffer immensely.
Everybody comes up with the
difference between a man and woman. Did God think about it when He created a
girl? Then why should we? Why do we create that difference? Every woman has the
same right as man. Indian law doesn’t
impose that difference of gender. They have right to move ahead and
create their own image in this world. We don’t have any right to underestimate
and let them down. Instead they should be encouraged to fight their life with
great courage and should be supported in all form for that.
It is known that women’s right
around the world is an important indicator to understand global well-being. A
major global women’s rights treaty was ratified by the majority of the world’s
nations a few decades ago. When people around the world are getting much
serious on this matter why is our country been left out. We do pass out various
laws for their safety but do we really follow them in our day to day life? Some
where we really need to ask this question to every individual of this country.
Yet, despite many successes in
empowering women, numerous issues still exist in all areas of life, ranging
from the cultural, political to economic. For example, women often work more
than men, yet are paid less; gender discrimination affects girls and women
throughout their lifetime; and women and girls are often the ones that suffer
the most poverty despite of having good knowledge and capacity to show up their
level in each and every flied.
Many may think that women’s
rights are only an issue in countries where religion is law, such as many
Muslim countries. Or even worse, some may think this is no longer an issue at
all. But after reading this report that was created by the United Nation’s
women’s Treaty and where how an increasing number of countries are lodging
reservations would clear out things otherwise.
Gender equality furthers the
cause of child survival and development for all of society, so the importance
of women’s rights and gender equality should not be underestimated. The
national capital has earned the dubious distinction of meeting out maximum
discrimination and harassment to women from northeast, a survey has said. This
is a real shame that women are not at safe despite of having some many laws for
their safety
Around 60 per cent women from northeast have
faced harassment and discrimination in the four metros- New Delhi, Mumbai,
Kolkata and Bangalore. It is estimate that 23 per cent of the respondents
admitted to having been harassed by landlords, an alarming 42 per cent said
they were often subjected to verbal abuse. A total of 29 per cent reported
harassment and molestation. (TOI – 24th Jan, 2014)
Posing
as survey people the IBN7 reporters questioned some of the senior policemen in
Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan and here are the answers they got:
- Sexual activities cannot take place without consent.
- 98% rapes are with consent; only 1-2% is rapes.
- People see women in tight short, clothes and make-up and get thoughts.
- 90% rape happens to women in western clothes.
- Women go out with friends. When more men join gang rape happens.
- Mostly women of bad character and prostitutes get raped.
- 15-16 year old girls get raped only by their consent. They have affair with boys, when people find out, they call it rape.
- Why do women protest after they are raped? If they object before the rape, then no man can rape a woman.
- Law is 200% tilted in favor of women. What they say is final.
Still the number of crime against women has never decreased and on the
contrary it’s been increasing rapidly. There is question at this point are we
really civilized? Are we well cultured and well behaved people or some dumb who
would just follow western culture blindly and in an inappropriate manner. It’s
time to think on this matter before it gets too late.
Before discussing further let us brief some of
the facts:
For the year 2011, the statistical
data of the crime against women (Note this are only the registered
cases; much more goes unreported):
- Total of 24206 rape cases
- 11351 acquitted
- Only 4072 convicted
- Total 228650 cases of Crime against Women in India (including rapes, sexual harassment, domestic violence, molestation etc.)
- Out of the total cases of Crime against Women, 33789 were in cities
- That implies 85% in rural & small towns
- There has been a drastic increase of 24% in the number of rape cases reported in Delhi after the 16th December 2012 incident with 181 cases registered in the first two months of 2013 (In 2012 706 rape cases were reported in Delhi).
- According to the statistics, nearly three women are raped every hour in the country, and rapes increased by 20% between 2007 and 2011.
- National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) statistics also showed that 94 per cent of rape-accused are known to victims.
(http://www.socialscribblers.in/how-indian-cops-treat-rape-victims-a-sting-operation-expose/1st
February, 2014)
Picture Courtesy: Stop
Violence Against Women by ~CompBomb on deviantART
Now
let’s move a little back into the history and have some facts out. Mrs. Indira
Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India. She became a very famous woman in
the world. With her, the status of women in India increased a lot. It was
proved that women are not inferior to men in any manner and in field. Many
women thereafter occupied prestigious positions in India. They excelled in
almost all fields such as sports, politics, administration, science and arts.
The Government of India has taken
all efforts to abolish the difference between men and women. According to the
Constitution of India, men and women are equal before law. The government is
laying special emphasis on the education of girls and also to have more number
of girl child been born. In the recent competitive examinations, women have done
better performance than men. Also the
very well Kalpana Chawla's visit to the space has encouraged several young girls
to make more and more research in the field of science today.
Women
can get back their rightful place in society if law is properly enforced to
check male-superiority and to avoid the crime that goes on. Safety of women still does not seem to be a priority for
the authorities despite all the promises they make. Such incidents continue to
happen every day with very few even being reported. Our government and police
need to step up and take more appropriate measures to make our society safe for
women. Stop blaming the victims and blame yourselves for a change. If there are
steps taken up to stop this mainly it’s against the women wherein they either
her freedom to roam around is been snatched or are asked to have a proper
dressing sense or are under high supervision. Despite of punishing the people
who are behind the crime it’s normally the women who suffer the most.
Don't let these incidents slip by. We
need help from our very own citizens to stop this menace. Don't be silent.
Stand up against this violence or else the next victim will be your own
daughter, wife, sister or mother. Enough of giving awards,
token symbolism and candle march that is been forgotten after few days and life
gets to normal for the rest of the world. The real tribute to women will be in
form of police reforms to provide justice to all the victims. Changing the
mindset is a long process but we must begin now. Every citizen needs to get
alert and vigilant enough to stop this crime going on.
For this blog I do have
certain reference to be acknowledged which are: Report of NCRB; Report
of Ministry of Home Affairs; India @ 9 March 7, Times of
India – 24th January, 2014, http://www.socialscribblers.in/how-indian-cops-treat-rape-victims-a-sting-operation-expose/
1st February, 2014 who have help me by some real good data which
is been used in this article to make it much more stronger.
