Sexual assault and harassment are so common that fear keeps women indoors by choice
I live in a society where
rape cases are mentioned in the newspapers every single day. In India, they may not always be front page stories, but they are always there, lurking in the background of our day-to-day lives.
I am a high school student from Noida, a satellite town of Delhi. The unsafe conditions in my city have always scared me. As a woman, as a girl, I am afraid to walk on the street in front of my house without my father. I cannot wear anything too “revealing” or that is considered an “invitation” for harassment. I cannot go to markets alone. I can’t stay out after seven in the evening.
The worst part of it is the disgusting familiarity of it all. Rape and harassment are so common here that these rules don’t have to be imposed to be followed. The fear keeps us indoors of our own accord.
The most recent
rape case to cause public outrage has made the headlines mostly due to the government’s delayed reaction. An eight-year-old girl in Kathua (a town in the state of Jammu and Kashmir) was drugged, raped multiple times and murdered before her body was thrown out on to the street. It is the most high-profile case of gang rape since 2012, when a student was attacked on a bus in Delhi. She later died from her internal injuries and her death made headlines across India and worldwide. She became known as “
Nirbhaya”, which means “fearless” in Hindi.
I was 10 years old in November 2012, too young to join the thousands who marched in protest through the city at night. This time there will be more marches and candlelight vigils. To what avail? We will march — I will march. But it will be for nothing if the government doesn’t change the way it deals with the problem.
What has changed in six years? People who label this case the “new Nirbhaya” suggest nothing has — and they are right. It is a repeat of the heartbreak, the outrage and the sympathy. But what have we learnt?
What scares me the most is how unsafe women can feel in the city they call home. How long can this go on? Will we introduce our children to the same problems?
Statistics from the
National Crime Records Bureau show that rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. But the problem is broader: the three crimes that come higher in the list are: “cruelty by husband or his relatives”, “assault on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty” and “kidnapping and abduction”.
The figures haven’t changed much over the years, so what is to say they will change now? We remain stuck in the quicksand and will remain there unless we force ourselves to evolve.
As I write this, I know I’m not alone in expressing my outrage. Indian women and girls are all united in our grief. As a woman, as a sister and as a citizen, I am heartbroken, furious and desperate for justice. I no longer want to be scared in my hometown. I no longer wish to hide behind a male figure for protection and live in this patriarchal society. I want freedom for the sisters who stand with me and justice for the sisters who cannot.
https://www.ft.com/content/6f41d2da-4707-11e8-8c77-ff51caedcde6
