No cities for women

Many molestation incidents on the last day of 2016 makes us rethink about the state of women safety in Indian cities. Women were assaulted on roads and people and system failed to protect them. Are we able to provide girls and women a safe urban environment?

Any civilized society will hang its head in shame after what happened in Bengaluru and Delhi on New Year’s Eve.  Hundreds of drunken men on the streets of Bengaluru went after hapless women returning from New Year celebrations indulging in mass molestation while state machinery remained a mute spectator. No different was the case in Delhi where a similar crowd went after a woman pillion rider, pulled her out and molested her. Things went so much out of hand that even women police officers had to take shelter in police post to save themselves from a rowdy crowd.

So the two big and important cities of the country became an example of lawlessness where the writ of unruly revelers ran large targeting women who were equally entitled to party and then safely return home. Anarchy prevailed on the streets after 11 pm in Bengaluru and Delhi both as revelers gathered in the heart of the city to welcome the New Year. Police claim of “elaborate” security arrangements turned out to be a fizz as women were molested and sexually harassed. All hell broke loose close to midnight as hooligans in the garb of revelers started pawing, molesting and passing lewd remarks on women on the streets, forcing some of them to literally take off their stilettoes and run for help.Later some more CCTV footage came to light showing how women were brutally assaulted near their homes just few hundred meters away from the police station as bystanders watched silently.

Night of horrors

The men were too many, and too unruly, for even the cops to do anything. Bengaluru city police had claimed that entire city police force has been deployed on the streets to maintain law and order but it turned out to be of no help. They were badly outnumbered by the drunken hooligans and resorted to intervene only depending on the gravity of the situation. But a brazen administration later claimed that no such incident happened despite photographic evidence and eye-witness account and no FIR has been registered till date(when we go to print).

What is perturbing is that even the city administration and political class failed these women who were harassed, groped and sexually assaulted. Home minister of Karnataka brushed aside these incidents with his insensitive remarks that ‘these things happen’. The city police commissioner Praveen Sood said that the alleged mass molestation of women ‘did not happen’. Later, he clarified that while such a thing “could have happened” in a city of 10 million, there was “no evidence” of it.

While the police is still searching for the evidence, civil society is up in arms demanding justice for those women and also expressing concern over the incident. Prominent Bengalureans have expressed horror over the recent turn of events. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD, Biocon says that such events happening in the city is scary and the authorities should nip such crimes in the bud. We are a different kind of city and most citizens residing here are peace-loving; so it is vital that authorities deal with such incidents with a heavy hand. On New Year’s Eve, people are in a different frame of mind and alcohol adds to the mischief of a few uncouth people and the police should deal with it strictly before it turns into a menace. Some also attribute it to cultural deprivation among people in a city which has grown at a rapid pace.

Mohandas Pai, ex-CFO of Infosys says that over the past few years, the city has grown at a rapid pace and this has also given rise to a kind of cultural deprivation among the people who are not exposed to a certain kind of lifestyle. During New Year’s Eve, miscr­eants throng the city plazas to get sadistic pleasure by indulging in molestation and eve teasing. It is high time the police take strict action against such people and instill fear so that they refrain from indulging in such activities.

According to the police statistics, Bengaluru had 690 cases of sexual harassment and molestation booked under Section 354 in 2014 out of which the accused in 22 are yet to be arrested. In 2015, the city had 714 cases of molestation and 171 of them are still under investigation. In 2016, the police registered 756 cases of sexual harassment and 559 of them are still under investigation.

 

Drunkards or mindset

So we get alarmed only on 31^st of December or when a Nirbhaya happens. We all must feel enraged over violence against women. But can we allow it to rest there? Are we outraged just becauseit happened to be a case of mass molestation? Why do we not equally feel outraged over the daily violence that women face in day to day life?

The fact is we have so many ways of rationalising violence against women. Factor in some remarks from our politician and policy makers post the 31^st December incident and before that when violence against women hit the headlines. Abu Azmi of Samajwadi party said “You have to keep petrol away from fire. And if there is sugar, ants will come automatically to it”. Former Delhi Police Commissioner BK Gupta is on the record saying that “Women cannot drive alone at 2 am on Delhi’s roads and then claim that the Capital is unsafe”. “You should take your brother or driver with you. These reasonable precautions are expected to be taken by all citizens of the city.”

Every time we tell women to respect “Lakshman Rekhas” and remain “within boundaries” we are telling men they need not respect even the boundaries of a woman’s body. If anything, LakshmanRekha is a woman’s own body that must not be violated under any circumstances without her consent. The men must learn and if need be taught to respect that boundary. Men must learn that women have a right over their own body. Is that wishful thinking? Yes if we hear our leaders comparing women with petrol and sugar. In other words they say that women are objects of consumption to be owned or snatched by force.

The political discourse and debate on gender has hit an all-time low. It is chilling to observe the way in which politicians invoke women’s safety as a pretext to control their movements and their desires. And that percolates through the social ladder where men feel entitled to control the bodies and lives of women in their homes and abuse them at will. And that gets extended to all the women,without making a difference whether it is 31^st December or any other day of the year. The rules for women are endless. They must have a ‘valid reason’ to venture out at night alone.

The anti-rape movement that followed Nirbhaya incident had a clear motive that women must have a “fearless freedom” and they must not be asked to trade freedom for “safety”. The ‘why loiter’ movement is asserting that the best way to fight street violence is to assert the unqualified right of women to loiter aimlessly and for pleasure on the streets. The ‘Pinjra Tod’ movement is challenging all discriminatory hostel rules that lock women up in the name of safety. All this is challenging the stereotypes and must be supported for a violence free society against.