Concerned over the increasing atrocities against women in the country, around 200 intellectuals, civil society members and people from different walks of life of the capital city on Sunday gathered here to chalk out plans at their ends to check the ‘uncivilised’ practices.
“Physical violence and other atrocities against women have become rampant in our country now. A plethora of rapes reported in the Indian media this year narrate the real status of women which reflects the standard and level of civilisation we and our society have,” said Prof Aruna Mishra while presiding over a convention on ‘Ever-increasing atrocities against women.’
Observing that the Indian system and the power that be have failed to arrest an epidemic of violence against women, Prof Aidwyta Mohanty said it is easier for the morality police to start a backlash against women, banning them from the street, from going out to their workplaces or requiring them to stay at home. This ‘blaming-the-woman-culture mindset’ needs to be changed through concerted and organised efforts.
A change in Indian society and attitudes would only come when the enforcement agencies are challenged to become accountable to the people, and they would only become accountable once a national discourse on women begins to change substantively, said she.Prof Rita Ray pointed out that a vast majority of women are attacked or abused with such barbarity and brutality that they start suffering from depression due to post-traumatic stress disorders and other mental illnesses, pregnancy complications, broken bones, bruises and many of them contemplate to commit suicide or are forced to end their lives.
“Although women are considered to be the decent half of our society, they live a life of vulnerability and insecurity. The safety, wellbeing and working lives of women are at stake. The cases of recent gangrape of photojournalist in Mumbai to rape and murder of girls in various parts of Odisha like the rape and murder of Bebina Behera in Pipili, gangrape of a deaf and dumb girl in Konark underline the gravity of the situation,” observed the intellectuals.