Women's Safety : Tehelka

[Guest guest]

Women's Safety Is A Two-Way Street

http://ultracurrents.blogspot.com

- FLAVIA AGNES, Tehelka

Jan 19 , 2008

 

IN SHOCKING PHOTOS OF disheveled girls with their

clothes torn, splashed across newspapers on New Years

day, raise many questions about the safety of women in

public places.

 

Some have questioned the wisdom in highlighting a case

of molestation of young NRI women in front of a

five-star hotel in Mumbai when there are many far more

gruesome incidents of young girls getting raped and

murdered. But there are lessons to belearnt here which

are crucial to the protection of all women.

 

Perhaps the issue would have died down had the Mumbai

Police Commissioner not said that there was nothing

extraordinary about the incident and that he didn’t

see what the fuss was about.

 

Maybe he has a point. Maybe you can provide only so

much security to women who choose to mingle with

drunken mobs. Be that as it may, more disturbing is

the commissioner’s next comment, “If you want to

protect your wives, keep them at home.”

 

This endorses the popular sexist attitude that “good

women stay at home”. Extending the argument then,

women who choose to step out from the safety of their

homes are “molestable” as they provoke uncontrollable

male lust which cannot be checked by the police.The

fact that this remark was made by the chief of the

police force — whose job it is to protect Mumbai’s

citizens, including its women — is a matter of concern

as it sends wrong signals down the rank and file of

the police cadre.

 

A lot of money and effort has gone into sensitising

the police force and it will all come to a naught with

such unwarranted stray comments from the police chief.

 

 

Still I see a pattern emerging in the recent high

profile molestation cases. Many involved young

unmarried foreigners or NRI women. Is it that certain

instinctive safety measures are not in place here?

 

In Mumbai, what provoked the mob was the response from

the girls to their lewd comments. Certainly, these

comments shouldn’t have been made, but the women

should have been more aware of their own safety when

confronted by a large, unruly mob.

 

More importantly, while we debate the callousness of

the police and advocate the right of women to be part

of the New Year revelry, we must also simultaneously

train women and girls about certain basic instinctive

measures.

 

The police and women’s organisations need to work

together to list these and broadcast emergency numbers

for assistance in times of danger. Only then will the

freedom we are demanding be actualised.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main37.asp?filename=Op190108Womens_safety.asp

 

http://ultracurrents.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

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