The recent gangrape of a 23-year-old girl
in the national capital, followed by the death of the victim, has sent
shockwaves throughout the country. It has also triggered discussions
about the kind of punishments rapists deserve.
There are arguments for and against capital punishment. In my view, our country has not matured enough to bid adieu to capital punishment. Nevertheless, capital punishment alone will not stop these abominable acts. Faster and stiffer enforcement of punishment is sure to help. Few years ago some college students who had brutally attacked a girl in a cinema complex in Chennai were let off with just a fine of a few thousand rupees.
Who fosters the mentality of indulging in violence against women? It is the family and the society. A scene from a recent movie depicts the hero, accompanied by the comedian, waiting at a traffic signal. He asks a girl whose face is covered and is standing beside him, something. When the girl unveils her face the hero spits on the road, as the girl is not good looking.
No other cinema of any other country can boast of such scenes. Men who watch and enjoy these films sexually assault women at slightest chance. They eve-tease schoolgirls, just like our heroes do in films. And if a girl complains to her parents, they vitriolise her face. These incidents are not stray; they get reported with chilling regularity. I used to refer to Delhi as the rape capital when I lived there 20 years ago. Today the situation has worsened rather than improving. Similarly, in Tamil Nadu, too, crimes against women have increased.
Those who commit these crimes are usually first-time offenders and the crimes are not predetermined. They are people like us and live among us. They are not strangers or outsiders.
A woman from the elite class said to me recently that she was sexually abused by a cyclerickshaw driver when she was six years old. When I asked her why she hadn’t complained, she said that she was afraid to do so.
There’s another incident that occurred in a Chennai pub. It was a birthday party and we were four friends — three guys and the girlfriend of a friend. After the party, the next morning, the girl called me and told me in a tense voice that one of our friends at the party had been asking for her phone number secretly, through signals, which the girl was unable to comprehend.
At the end of the party, when they were about to leave, the friend came up to the girl and said that he was asking for her phone number. This incident made me think. Is this okay? Or is this the portrait of a man who may stalk a woman and sexually assault her?
Women’s space is hidebound in our society. She is cramped inside the family. There is slight relaxation of boundaries to enable her to go for work nowadays. But apart from that she has no other space outside family and workplace.
A few years ago, a girl who had stepped out of a discotheque was chased to death, literally, by men who followed her in a car. It happened in Chennai. It happens everywhere. You may recall the moral police who would attack women in pubs. The core issue is that women should never move out of their “space”. If they do, they will be teased, molested or raped. “What was a woman doing with a man at this hour?” was the question of the offenders in Delhi.
In India, a woman’s space is walled off like a jail. If she comes out of her cell, her body is no longer hers. Delhi tops in this attitude. A slum-dwelling woman who had stepped out early morning was kidnapped in a car and gangraped in east Delhi. Last year, in Delhi, a 70-year-old woman was raped by a rickshawpuller and was thrown on a farmland. This incident happened in front of a police station.
Leave alone Europe and America. Even in countries in the East, women’s space is not restricted like it is in India. When I was in Malaysia recently, I saw working women everywhere, even at bars, wearing a tudung (headscarf), and at men’s salons. Remember, Malaysia is an Islamic country. Of course, petty crimes happen — signboards with the warning, “Take care of your footwear”, hang everywhere, in temples and pagodas, but crimes against women are unheard of.
The attitude of Indian men towards women is the reason for the increasing number of sexual and other crimes against women in India. A mother plays a significant role in developing her son’s views about women. But most men see their mothers and sisters as domestic help who wash, cook and assist them. An extension of this view is the image of women as a commodity, meant only for gratification, sexual and otherwise.
Even though we have a culture of worshipping women as goddesses, crimes against women is rising in number and audacity. Because women have come out of the sanctum sanctorum prescribed by men, they are being sexually assaulted and raped — punished for defying “norms”. Mahatma Gandhi once said that only if a woman can walk safely on the streets at nights can we boast of our freedom. If India needs to attain that state of true freedom, our attitude towards women has to undergo a drastic change.
Charu Nivedita is a post-modern Tamil writer based in Chennai.
His magnum opus, Zero Degree, is considered one of the best in trangressive fiction.
There are arguments for and against capital punishment. In my view, our country has not matured enough to bid adieu to capital punishment. Nevertheless, capital punishment alone will not stop these abominable acts. Faster and stiffer enforcement of punishment is sure to help. Few years ago some college students who had brutally attacked a girl in a cinema complex in Chennai were let off with just a fine of a few thousand rupees.
Who fosters the mentality of indulging in violence against women? It is the family and the society. A scene from a recent movie depicts the hero, accompanied by the comedian, waiting at a traffic signal. He asks a girl whose face is covered and is standing beside him, something. When the girl unveils her face the hero spits on the road, as the girl is not good looking.
No other cinema of any other country can boast of such scenes. Men who watch and enjoy these films sexually assault women at slightest chance. They eve-tease schoolgirls, just like our heroes do in films. And if a girl complains to her parents, they vitriolise her face. These incidents are not stray; they get reported with chilling regularity. I used to refer to Delhi as the rape capital when I lived there 20 years ago. Today the situation has worsened rather than improving. Similarly, in Tamil Nadu, too, crimes against women have increased.
Those who commit these crimes are usually first-time offenders and the crimes are not predetermined. They are people like us and live among us. They are not strangers or outsiders.
A woman from the elite class said to me recently that she was sexually abused by a cyclerickshaw driver when she was six years old. When I asked her why she hadn’t complained, she said that she was afraid to do so.
There’s another incident that occurred in a Chennai pub. It was a birthday party and we were four friends — three guys and the girlfriend of a friend. After the party, the next morning, the girl called me and told me in a tense voice that one of our friends at the party had been asking for her phone number secretly, through signals, which the girl was unable to comprehend.
At the end of the party, when they were about to leave, the friend came up to the girl and said that he was asking for her phone number. This incident made me think. Is this okay? Or is this the portrait of a man who may stalk a woman and sexually assault her?
Women’s space is hidebound in our society. She is cramped inside the family. There is slight relaxation of boundaries to enable her to go for work nowadays. But apart from that she has no other space outside family and workplace.
A few years ago, a girl who had stepped out of a discotheque was chased to death, literally, by men who followed her in a car. It happened in Chennai. It happens everywhere. You may recall the moral police who would attack women in pubs. The core issue is that women should never move out of their “space”. If they do, they will be teased, molested or raped. “What was a woman doing with a man at this hour?” was the question of the offenders in Delhi.
In India, a woman’s space is walled off like a jail. If she comes out of her cell, her body is no longer hers. Delhi tops in this attitude. A slum-dwelling woman who had stepped out early morning was kidnapped in a car and gangraped in east Delhi. Last year, in Delhi, a 70-year-old woman was raped by a rickshawpuller and was thrown on a farmland. This incident happened in front of a police station.
Leave alone Europe and America. Even in countries in the East, women’s space is not restricted like it is in India. When I was in Malaysia recently, I saw working women everywhere, even at bars, wearing a tudung (headscarf), and at men’s salons. Remember, Malaysia is an Islamic country. Of course, petty crimes happen — signboards with the warning, “Take care of your footwear”, hang everywhere, in temples and pagodas, but crimes against women are unheard of.
The attitude of Indian men towards women is the reason for the increasing number of sexual and other crimes against women in India. A mother plays a significant role in developing her son’s views about women. But most men see their mothers and sisters as domestic help who wash, cook and assist them. An extension of this view is the image of women as a commodity, meant only for gratification, sexual and otherwise.
Even though we have a culture of worshipping women as goddesses, crimes against women is rising in number and audacity. Because women have come out of the sanctum sanctorum prescribed by men, they are being sexually assaulted and raped — punished for defying “norms”. Mahatma Gandhi once said that only if a woman can walk safely on the streets at nights can we boast of our freedom. If India needs to attain that state of true freedom, our attitude towards women has to undergo a drastic change.
Charu Nivedita is a post-modern Tamil writer based in Chennai.
His magnum opus, Zero Degree, is considered one of the best in trangressive fiction.
Comments
Charu, probably hadn't heard
Reader
05 Jan
2013 - 15:24
Charu, probably hadn't heard of what a rape town malaysia is.
Unknown to him, Malaysia is notorious for rapes involving children as
young as 4 years old. Besides Charu your magic is lost in English.
Better done in Tamil.
Salute you Mr.Charu. This is
saran
05 Jan
2013 - 09:51
Salute you Mr.Charu.
This is the first article on this rape incident that tries to identify the issue, as opposed to analysing the symptoms of the issue.
Very well written Mr.Cahru
This is the first article on this rape incident that tries to identify the issue, as opposed to analysing the symptoms of the issue.
Very well written Mr.Cahru
realy its nice article..
alex thamizh
04
Jan 2013 - 16:28
realy its nice article.. delhi issue was not a law and order
problem,its a severe society problem..
maanam ketta samoogam...
maanam ketta samoogam...
Asian Age will be doing a
ravi srinivas
04
Jan 2013 - 14:35
Asian Age will be doing a service to readers if it stops
publishing these junk pieces by Charu Nivedita.
This is very nice article. I
DiaryAtoZ.com
04
Jan 2013 - 11:13
This is very nice article. I try to read Zero Degree also.
Chary put all the
Zafar Rahmani
04 Jan 2013 - 06:01
Chary put all the informations crime against women but what are
the salvation of this problem. How we can face this?
Well written article. The
Suresh
03 Jan
2013 - 20:00
Well written article. The author addressed the root of the
problems. 'A mother plays a significant role in developing her son’s
views about women'
Hi, I am a great fan of your
Senthilkumar SS
03 Jan 2013 - 19:01
Hi, I am a great fan of your wrting and I have been following
you(articles,books) for last five years. Its one of the great artcle
about the fundmental reason of these incidents which sadly no one seems
to be talking about. Its not just that, the so-called sexual morality
dictated in the name of so-called indian 'culture' because of which
indian males sex-starved when at the same time our sexual exposure gets
increased manifold through movies, tv shows, internet(scandals). until
we find solutions for these, i am afraid we are going to see many more
of these even , the captial punishment is made into law books
Pucca.This is the way one
Prakash
03
Jan 2013 - 16:47
Pucca.This is the way one should look the problem, not in some
mediocre way. Very nice article. Absolute true, the problem starts from
the family.
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