Sexual Violence Against Women

 The recent brutal Delhi gang rape incident shook the nation's conscience, particularly of the middle classes across India. It was a horrific act which must be condemned and thus there is a need, as the civil society demands, to strengthen laws and governance for the safety of women. But is our solution limited only to strong laws, death penalty and stupid ideas like castration. For me, tough laws and strengthening police are just short term measures. You can't put police men in every corner of India and whats worse is that some times these security personnel themselves are the perpetrators.

We need to understand that sexual violence against women is a result of much deeper factors. It is a symptom of a larger problem which is related to the subordination of women (no matter what class she belongs to). Thus the whole society is to be blamed when any such incident takes place. Right from the childhood the girl is taught, both overtly and covertly, that her every public act is related to family's honour. As you must have heard the saying  "us bechari ki izzat lut gayi". What this statement connotes is that a family's (read men's) and women's honour is directly related to her chastity. This is a particular trait of our Indian culture (Remember Rama asking Sita for Agni Pariksha ). Thus a rape no longer remains a physical torture and exploitation but an act which takes away women's and her family's so-called dignity.  Women is no longer in control over her sexuality and body and this is taught to her (and him as well) throughout her life. Thus though all such incidents may have elements of perversion, they happen behind the shadow of such factors. For instance, in all the communal riots the targets are often women so that the males of the opposite religion can be humiliated for life as their women were 'de-valued'. The prime example is Godhra riots. Similarly in rural areas invariably all such incidents are committed against lower caste women by upper caste men to settle inter-caste conflicts. Similar things happen during wars. Again many sexual abuses happen within the family and the girl keeps quiet.

For me the solution thus is empowerment of women, particularly her economic independence. This is because only after becoming economically independent can women challenge such deep patriarchal notions. A women who depends on her family to survive cannot fight against the system. Only by becoming independent and empowered, both materially and intellectually, that she can start taking control over her body. Soon society's culture would show signs of change too. It will definitely lead to decline in atrocities against women as women would not only no longer shy to speak against it but also because physical violence and honour would get dehyphenated. It is high time thus to move in this direction. We need to pass Women Reservation Bill, we need more education and funds for women, we need more economic opportunities and positive discrimination for women, we need to gender sensitize our various institutions including family and marriage. Not only government should take steps in this direction but we should also change our thinking and socialization patterns and help fan such ideas. For example, I really admire the Slut-Walk idea. My thrust on the article thus is to relate the sexual violence with the subordination of women. As long as she remains in cultural shackles these violences will continue unabated.