Society is comprised of men and women but the respect and values that men gain are comparatively higher than women. Why is this so? Does the woman have less capacity? Or Did God make women inferior?
The answer is still far far away to know. Several centuries have been passed since the period women started feeling aside by society and it's now the 21st century, the modesty of women is ruining day by day, minute by minute.
BACKGROUND
You must have heard the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata when you were a kid from your grandmother or mother. At that time, these stories look so fantastic to us that we never took a second to look into the bad flows of it or you can say we had no that much maturity to understand the wrong depicted stories of it.
Ramayan: Sita was forcibly taken away by Ravana, who wanted to make her his queen. Sri Rama killed Ravana.
Ahalya was deceived into having sex with Indra. As a result, her husband Rishi Gautama cursed Indra that he would have 1,000 vaginas all over his body. Indra was so ashamed of the vaginas that sprouted all over his body that he went into hiding.
Mahabharata: Duryodhana and Draupadi - When Dushasana told Draupadi to sit on Duryodhana's lap, Bheema announced in the court he would cause Duryodhana's painful death by breaking his thigh bones and he fulfilled his vow.
Quoting these stories from epics Ramayana and Mahabharata does not mean that I'm against them but it's like picking up cactus among roses.
Types of outraging women face
1. Acid attack
2. Child marriage
3. Domestic violence
4. Forceful Domestic work
5. Child abuse
6. Female feticide
7. Dowry death
8. Child labor
9. Honour killing
10. Rape
11. Sexual harassment at the workplace
12. Forced for prostitution
Acid attack: India today Data Intelligence Unit ( DIU) has found that between 2014 and 2018, there have been 1,483 victims of acid attacks in the country. This is according to the data released by National Crime Records Bureau.
Child marriage: Child marriage means when either a girl or boy marriages under the age of 18 or 21 respectively. Causes are many like the poor economic condition of the family. Jharkhand state is leading in child marriage.
Domestic violence: In 2020, between March 25 to May 31, 1,477 complaints of domestic violence were made by women. I think domestic violence is another pandemic in India.
Forceful Domestic work: 54% of working women between the ages of 15 to 59 are not available for works because of household responsibilities or domestic work.
Child abuse: Child abuse can be physical, mental, or sexual. 53% of children face sexual abuse.
Female feticide: Women are murdered all over the world but the most brutal murder of females happened with babies who are not even born yet. Especially in rural areas where parents don't want to give birth to a baby girl. According to the UNFPA report, about 4.6 crore females missing in India due to son preference.
Dowry death: In India, 20 women die every day as a result of harassment over a dowry. They are murdered or compelled to commit suicide. A flight attendant Anissa Batra who jumped off the terrace, her parents say, was tortured emotionally for dowry.
Honor killing: In simple words, honor killing can be defined as disobeying the honor of a family by a woman for marrying a man belonging to another caste or religion. In India, as per the latest available published information with National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a total of 28 cases in 2014, 251 cases in 2015, and 77 cases in 2019 were reported with the motive of honor killing.
Rape: According to the National Crime Records Bureau ( NCRB), 32033 rape cases were registered across the country, or an average of 88 cases daily.
sexual harassment at workplace: sexual harassment at the workplace is considered a violation of women's right to equality, life, and liberty.
Vishakha and others V. State of Rajasthan
In the case of the Vishakha and others V. State of Rajasthan and others. The Hon'ble Supreme Court has laid down guidelines and norms to be observed to prevent sexual harassment of working women.
Causes of offenses against women
1. People think women are made to confined to the house only
Accept it or not but so many people still believe that women aren't made to work outside the home. When we ask them why do they think this way, the answer we get is physical strength. Women are not capable or strong enough to work outside. There are preconceived notions prevalent in the society that women are weak. Gender roles being assigned to women that generally categories them as the caretaker of the family.
2. Educational backwardness
Generally, women are not as much or not at all educated as men. There are a bunch of reasons. There is a myth that if a woman gets an education, she will not listen to her family or husband.
3. Wrong assumptions of people
If a girl is raped, people think apparently it was her short dress, consuming alcohol, and having a party at night are the reasons that she got raped.
4. Intoxication
Consuming alcohol is not harmful to males only but also for women when their husbands come back home at night and start beating them because she didn't cook food tasty or for some other reason,
5. Patriarchal society
Patriarchal society is the main reason for women being harassed everywhere, whether it is home or office or anything else.
WAY FORWARD
1. Government should focus more on women safety especially at night so that women don't face the same problem as Nirbhaya rape case or Bangaluru rape case.
2. Providing employment, water supply, sanitation should not the only options for politicians to get votes from citizens, they should also include the option of women safety. I think, it's not just an option, it must be a criteria for common people to vote politicians upon.
3. Citizens and government should not to be more focused, alert or aggressive at that time only when a rape case happened. They should learn to work as a caretaker when a girl is walking on the road alone or being raped by so many.
4. Nirbhaya fund came into existence after a historic rape case happened in Delhi 2012. It was started with 1,000 crore and only 36% of the fund has been used so far. Now you can imagine how unutilized this fund is. Government should coordinate among ministers and bring this fund into utilization.
5. Girl students should be trained in self defense/martial arts. Government should provide free trainers of martial art in government schools and colleges. Private institutions should also work upon it.
6. Street lights and CCTVs should not installed just for showing but it must work everytime.
7. Citizens should also learn not to see a raped girl with suspicion. It may be possible this time she's the victim, some other times, victim can be me and your mother or sister also. We should learn not to see a victim with sin but with a blessing of God whom he sent on the earth to make her dreams come true.
8. Students should be taught about gender equality, respecting women at an early age so that they can inculcate these values in their minds.
9. Increase the number of female police officers so that they can only file complaints of the victims, or can visit at the very spot where a rape happened, or can reach where ever a female police officer is needed.
10. The Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) provides that investigation relating to offences punishable with imprisonment up to 10 years must be completed within 60 days.
The proposed Maharashtra Shakti Act of 2020 will have a provision to complete investigation within 15 days.
Among given dealines of investigation showing the concern of the government towards the victim. But, however, we should forget that these timelines can work against a woman. What if, the lawyer of the victim cannot find enough evidences to proof the allegations right? So, in my humble opinion, government should make a provision through which a magistrate will listen to an anecdote of the case, and will decide the timeline of investigation after that he will give his final opinion.
11. Government should work on infrastructure. They should provide enough public toilets so that women don't need to go in open.
12. Moreover, women should also know about their rights if they want to use a toilet, they can even use a toilet of 5 star hotel, even if she is not having lunch or dinner there.
13. Not family, nor even school teachers are ready to talk about sex openly. Sex education is must needed education, we should all work more upon. Men must be taught women are not toys with whom you can play anywhere and anytime. Women have dignity and modesty and everybody should respect them.
The suggestions given above are enough to end this other pendemic of India or is there anything else you're keeping in mind?
