It is not the state, the judiciary or the bureaucracy, but the society that has failed to provide security to women. Nevertheless, they have shown exemplary courage
last week, a girl student of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) was allegedly molested by two men riding a motorbike when she was returning to her hostel in the evening. The girl cried out for help but the security guards who were just about 100 meters away from the spot, did nothing and the culprits flew. later, the girl, accompanied by her fellow college mates, approached the guards and their hostel warden too, but the latter, instead of ensuring justice, advised the girl to walk carefully while moving alone in the dark and asked her why was she returning to the hostel so lateIJ
According to social media posts of various present and former students of the BHU, and as alleged by protesters, ‘eve-teasing’ is rampant in the campus. The administration too has not been taking any action to stop the miscreants. Resultantly, the victims prefer to remain silent. Clearly, with frequent cases of sexual harassment, the BHU is on its way to become an unsafe place for women.
But that day was different. The students, instead of being silent, sat on a dharna at the main gate of the university campus. One of the girl student even got her head tonsured. On the night of September 23, peaceful protests turned violent when the protesting students tried to forcibly enter the vice chancellor's residence to meet him. However, they were stopped by the security guards and after some stone-pelting, the police mounted a baton charge which triggered nation-wide condemnation of the incident and saw a series of protest, which transcended ideological barriers — all students' organisations participated.
Coincidently, September 21 also marked the beginning of navaratri — a festival of feminine power, where goddess Durga stands out majestically, representing the traditional Indian conception of womanhood — from a pretty daughter and caring mother to fierce destroyers in its all different forms. But this conception of women's identity and equality manifested byArdhanarishvara (also known as devi, shakti and uma) seems to be lost in the patriarchal Indian society of recent times where women can be anything but a free human being.
In 2012, following the Nirbhaya gang-rape case, when the entire country erupted with massive protests, a debate started on women safety and gender justice. The Nirbhaya case ended with the Supreme Court upholding the death sentence for the four convicts. The judgment was a message from the judiciary to future criminals that such heinous acts will not be forgiven. But a week after the judgement, a mutilated body of a 23-year-old woman was found. Stray dogs had bitten away the victim's face which was smashed by running over by a vehicle to hide her identity. The lower portion of her body was spotted by a passer-by in the urban estate area of Rohtak. Forensic experts, who conducted her post-mortem, said that the victim was gang-raped by at least seven people, murdered and mutilated with sharp-edged weapons.
In a country where a large number of cases of crime against women goes unreported — because of the idea that it will bring ‘dishonour’ to the family — according to the National Crime Records Bureau, the total number of rapes in India were 24,923 in 2012. This went up to 33,707 in 2013; 36,735 in 2014; and 34,651 in 2015. These cases exclude those which were registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. Other than that, there were 45,551 cases of assault on women with the intent to outrage her/their modesty in 2012, which raised to 82,422 in 2015. There were 9,1173 cases of insult to modesty in 2012 and 8,685 cases in 2015.
All of this is so terrifying that even in the safest of our city, a woman will not dare to step out alone in the night without risking her life and modesty. And if something ‘wrong' happens with her, the first thing which starts is victim-blaming. In fact, it is not even safe to stay at home or in custody of protectors of law. In 17.4 per cent of rape cases registered in 2015, the culprits were blood relatives of the victim and in 95.5 per cent cases the culprits were known to victims and there were 95 cases of custodial rape.
The need, therefore, is to recognise the fact that it is the society that is failing to provide security and safety to its women and not the bureaucracy, the judiciary or the Government, as except putting a fear of punishment all other psychological and motivational factors behind crimes related to women are beyond the ambit of law and order machinery. In a society where lakhs of people take to the street, arson, rioting in favour of the so-called ‘godman', culprits of rape, politicians don't hesitate to sayladko se galtiyan ho jati hai (boys make mistakes) and victim-blaming is as normal as anything. It is not surprising that the criminals have a psychology that they can easily get off.
The university administration is blaming outsiders with politically motivated agenda for the protest and attempts to politicise the issue. While the presence of some political elements can't be ruled out, but other than these political vultures, there are many common girls fighting for a gender-just society against the demon of the objectification of women and misogyny, which is now deeply rooted in a once gender-just society. The exemplary courage that the woman are showing and the conviction with which they are fighting, they certainly are worth being called ‘mini-Durgas’.
(Abhishek is a post-graduate student, Centre for Informal Sector and labour studies, School of Social Sciences, JNU and Velentina Brahma is MSc, life Science)