You must have heard about the recent case of gangrape in Hathras! And even if you haven’t, it is pretty normal. Most of the people around us are not aware of cases like these unless they become national news. Recently this girl from Hathras was gang-raped and badly injured by a few men, if this doesn’t melt your heart, nothing else can!
India is growing not only in the terms of healthcare, infrastructure, and industries but also in the rape culture. As such events float in the news, women find it more dangerous to get out of their houses. The place where men haven’t even spared an eight-month-old baby is surely not a safe place to live in. According to the latest government figures, Indian police registered 33,658 cases of rape in 2017. Experts say that a woman is raped in India every 15 minutes. India, thus, has been dubbed "the most dangerous country for women" by many human rights activists.
Read this article to know “Is India really the worst place for women to live in?”
What is Wrong?
So, firstly, let us see what does “rape” actually means? Rape is a sexual act carried out without the other person’s consent. Even though the legal definition of rape in international standards appears to be clear, it seems that it has not fully become recognized by society. People perceive the definition of rape differently.
In India, mostly, it is the rape culture, in which girls are told how to dress to avoid ‘inviting trouble’ and ‘slut-shamed’, normalizing male predatory behavior. People go on blaming women and what was wrong in their approach. Not only men but women also never stop demeaning other women. Things like “staying out late”, “wearing short dresses”, “giving signs” etc. are frequently posed on girls. This is undoubtedly a misguided approach.
It is men who should be held accountable for a problem that has everything to do with them, and nothing to do with women. That problem is a culture of misogyny, aggressiveness, and normalized sexual abuse towards women.
Where to begin?
To remove the shameful tag that the world has put on India, both men and women need to walk a few steps in order to solve this issue. Men should open their eyes to see that they have women in their families too, as well and women should try to be more vocal about even the comparatively minor things like eve-teasing.
Education
To try and begin to modify this, we need a strong discussion around men, which needs to start in schools, public fora, and most elevated workplaces. Young boys must be instructed that it's inappropriate to speak disparagingly about ladies, feel up young ladies secretly, offer vulgar comments, and scoff at them. This can't be just left to parents.
It ought to be an aspect of the school educational program from grade school onwards, where mentalities are molded. For older students, gender sensitization classes and tests ought to be compulsory. Viciousness against ladies is so profoundly established in India, that this sensitization ought to be organized as much as essential perusing and composing abilities.
This, along with the ‘boys will be boys’ mentality, warps sex into something for men, done by men to women, without regard for the woman’s sexual happiness or wellbeing. This toxic culture that encourages men to view women as passive sex objects needs to be addressed.
From a really young age, every person should be given apt sex education. When not taught by parents or schools, young children tend to turn to passive sources like the internet for getting this information. And as we very well know, the internet is not a really safe space to be, click on something and you end up somewhere else. So, isn’t it better if we take up this responsibility?
Speaking Up
Women in India are told to fear talking about rape because it is a matter of virtue and honor of your family. It is horrible because you are violated, frightened, and hurt. If we understand rape as a personal horror, we can offer rape victims empathy, not the all-too-common shame or guilt.
Victims are often too ashamed to come forward. Sexual assault is a very humiliating and dehumanizing act against someone. The person really feels invaded and defiled, and there is a lot of shame attached to that. Often, survivors are not only blamed for the circumstances that led to the assault, but also criticized for how they did or did not "fight back," a reality that can be particularly brutal for male victims of assault who are told they should have been able to overpower their attacker.
We need to change the way in which we talk about rape. Generally, we tend to make it bigger or smaller than it actually is. In India, in case you're raped, either it's something about your entire family and your entire life and your entire network. It's a gigantic thing. Or we make it excessively little – what's the serious deal, for what reason are you actually thinking about it, it happened 10 years prior. We don't appear to locate a sensible parity in discussing it. We don't focus on what it really is, which is distinctive to every individual.
Have a look at this article to know “why we should talk about rape”.
Reporting Assualt
Statistics are extremely hard to come by. Numerous people don't, or can only with significant effort, report their assaults. In certain nations, you can be imprisoned for revealing assault, and in others, you and your family are disgraced into quiet. We have to instruct little youngsters and young ladies to regard brains, bodies, and spirits; to treat each other as equivalents, to urge casualties to venture forward, report and stop sexual maltreatment. We have to train that brutality against ladies is rarely alright. Individuals need to understand that assault is the most shocking wrongdoing and decimates lives.
Meanwhile, the quickest arrangement is to set up an extraordinary law authorization arm that manages sexual offenses. India's police power, vigorously exhausted, generally desensitized, and regularly pulled in various ways, can never again be relied on to give the time and devotion expected to manage this profound and wide social issue.
The administration must set up a unique unit that enlisted people and prepares officials explicitly to manage sexual offenses and make simple admittance to specialists, scientific specialists, assault survivors, and clinicians. This will assist casualties with feeling positive about approaching to look for equity. All enlisted offenses must be managed by this unit inside a month utilizing quick track courts. Predators must realize that equity is quick and positive for casualties. India's way to deal with controlling sexual animosity must avoid decreasing ladies, and root out crazy male-centric perspectives.
Conclusion
It is very shameful that a country that worships countless goddesses is entitled to be unsafe for women. The problem is not with one gender in particular. It is infused in our culture and mentalities for many years. It will take some time but if we decide now, we can uproot the problem soon.
Awareness and education is the first step to preventing rapes, right? Read this article to know more about one of the most heinous crimes in India- Marital Rape.
Written By - Riya Garg
Edited By - Neha Kundu
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