Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
How much more gender based violence can this country tolerate, and what needs to change if there has to be a step towards safety?
Present-day masculinist, gender based violence in India is an outcome of the preservation and reproduction of hegemonic patriarchal social institutions such as the Indian family, the judicial system, the media, educational institutions etc.
Almost nine years have passed since Nirbhaya was brutally gang-raped in a moving bus in India’s national capital. It’s been a little over a year since a doctor was gang-raped and murdered in Hyderabad. And, four months have passed since a 19-year-old Dalit girl met a similar fate in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. Yet, nothing has changed.
Nirbhaya’s parents routinely called out politicians and the ‘system’ for failing its people on the issue of justice. In a 2019 interview, Nirbhaya’s mother, Asha Devi said, “People have no faith in the system. All the governments have failed us.”
According to this livemint article, sexual assault is one of the most under-reported crimes in India. In 2019, close to 88 rapes were officially recorded daily. Out of the total 32,033 reported rape cases in that year, 11 percent were from the Dalit community.
In the domestic sphere, marital rape remains unrecognized as a crime. A 2005-06 Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India report showed that about two in five married women, from the ages of 15 to 49, had experienced various forms of violence in their marriage, slapping being the most common of them all. The streets in the public sphere, the space that rapes in the public eye like Nirbhaya, continues to be unsafe.
Even in the workspace, an extension of the public sphere, women have to face sexual harassment, casual sexism, and misogyny on a daily basis. The #MeToo movement was somewhat successful in drawing public attention to this problem. In a popular 2012 United States study of sexual harassment, researchers McLaughlin, Uggen, and Blackstone discovered that even female supervisors routinely experience ‘contra power harassment’ – harassment of women by men in junior positions. If a similar survey is done in India, the result might be the same.
Crimes against women contribute to about 10% of all crimes in the country. Women who file complaints against their perpetrators face routine humiliation and ostracization from the law, family, and peer groups. Most of the time, they aren’t even believed. Many cases go unreported because of the shame and stigma associated with the victim.
Khushi (age 30), who identifies as a transgender woman said in a 2018 interview: “When a transgender woman gets raped in this country, cops first mock her, saying she doesn’t have the organs to be sexually assaulted; and what follows is a barrage of injustices – perhaps greater than the first one.”
One often wonders, why are rapists not deterred from committing such gruesome acts of violence? How do they rationalize such acts? A lot of this has to do with how we raise our boys. Sociologists Sanjay Srivastava and RW Connell call it the making of hegemonic masculinity.
In an interview with The Atlantic, psychologist and author Michael C. Reichert discusses his book, How to Raise a Boy. He makes the case for raising boys in an environment with strong and healthy ties with one’s family and community. Doing so enables them to resist entrenched cultural norms of masculinity and enhances their emotional awareness from a young age. The peer pressure among young boys to sexually objectify women and girls is a toxic trait that needs to be done away with especially here in India. Sadly, little is being done to address this issue.
Despite the unanimous public outrage that follows in the aftermath of rape cases, I am afraid that until the Indian State and the people of India collectively call out the systematic misogyny, toxic masculinity, and patriarchy, we will never see an end to gendered violence. It’s no surprise that we still seem to be continually stuck at ground zero when it comes to the safety for women, children, and transgender people
Image source: stills from the films Pink, Ranjhanna, Thappad, and Kabir Singh
Kanav is, as of June 2021, pursuing his Master's in Development from Azim Premji University, Bangalore. He identifies as queer for personal and political reasons and can be contacted via https://www.linkedin.com/ read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Being a writer, Nivedita Louis recognises the struggles of a first-time woman writer and helps many articulate their voice with development, content edits as a publisher.
“I usually write during night”, says author Nivedita Louis during our conversation. Chuckling she continues,” It’s easier then to focus solely on writing. Nivedita Louis is a writer, with varied interests and one of the founders of Her Stories, a feminist publishing house, based in Chennai.
In a candid conversation she shared her journey from small-town Tamil Nadu to becoming a history buff, an award-winning author and now a publisher.
Nivedita was born and raised in a small town in Tamil Nadu. It was for schooling that she first arrived in Chennai. Then known as Madras, she recalls being awed by the city. Her love-story with the city, its people and thus began which continues till date. She credits her perseverance and passion to make a difference to her days as a vocational student among the elite sections of Madras.
Please enter your email address