Violence against women

M K Dhar
With increase in its incidence, violence against women has become a subject of national debate. surprisingly, even after sixty five years of Independence and the voluminous legislation enacted to safeguards their rights, Indian society continues to be apathetic towards their plight. Incidents, such as, those in Guwahati, Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai and other metros highlight the vulnerability of hapless women to physical violence by men in full public view and its vicious commercialization by the visual media, with utter disregard of law and social responsibility. Still more shocking is that such repulsive footage is lapped up by excitement-hungry viewers — women included — instead of evoking feelings of revulsion. Some TV channels are allegedly provoking such incidents to provide their viewers “visual retreat” and thereby increase their rating for advertisement purposes.
This deflects attention from real issues behind such violent manifestation of helplessness of the female gender in the face of unfair treatment meted to it, covertly or overtly, at home and at workplace. We hear stories of caste panchayats and “khaps” awarding punishment, including banishment from the village, or even plain execution, to lovers who elopes or marry out of caste; restricting the movement of young girls within their village and banning use of mobile phones by them. Such incidents may be rarer today in the cities than in the villages, but some incidents of honour kills have been reported even in the cities. Dalit and tribal women are as vulnerable as working girls in city streets and lanes, which confirms that the incidence of crime is as high in urban as in rural areas. The only difference is that crimes against women rarely get reported and policemen and administrators ensure suppression, lest they are held accountable for neglecting their duties and failure to check crimes.
If official statistics are any guide, crimes against women in India increased by 23.4 percent over 2007 and 7.1 per cent over 2010. Rape increased by 3.5 per cent in one year, with Madhya Pradesh topping with 14.1 per cent increase between 2010 and 2011. Cases of kidnapping and abduction went up by 19.4 per cent and molestation by 5.8 per cent. Cases under the Dowry Prohibition Act nose by as much as 27.7 per cent, with Andhra Pradesh topping the list and importation of girls by as much as 122 per cent. As regards Mega cities, Delhi accounted for the largest number, followed by Bangalore, Hyderabad and Vijayawada for crimes, such as, rape, kidnapping, abduction and dowry deaths. While the overall increase in dowry deaths was to the tune of 25.8 per cent over 2001, with Odisha leading with 26.4 dowry murders and the overall share of women murdered was 26.7 per cent of the total murder victims nationally.
It is also indicated that the higher the per capita income and high education and literacy levels, the higher is the incidence of crime against women. But the overall rate of conviction for such crimes was only 41.1 per cent: 19.5 per cent in dowry-related cases, 16.4 per cent for rape, 12.3 per cent for cruelty by husband and his relatives, 15.9 per cent for dowry cases and only 16.4 per cent in rape cases. This shows the laxity of the police and the courts in disposing off such cases expeditiously. The combination of administrative, legal and judicial responses is moving at snail’s pace, which is reflective of the slow response to the law and order situation in the country, including disposing of cases related to various crimes. The argument that economic reforms have been responsible for cases of crimes against women such as molestation and harassment at workplace increasing steadily does not hold, because the response of the administration and police to the overall crime situation has been slow and slipshod.
As regards sexual harassment, which has caught national attention lately, socio-cultural and economic factors also play a part, instead of treating it as a purely law and order matter. Dr. Bhupen Sarma rightly points out that the patriarchal forms of domination and repression in different segments of Indian society are being reshaped and reformulated by the forces of unregulated market. The way a women is projected in the world of advertisement has been dramatically changing the image of a common woman. The commodification of women’s bodies for the promotion of commodities manufactured by big companies has perhaps reached a stage of unprecedented vulgarization
The vulgarized images of women continuously propagated by the market forces have severe implications, besides promotion of the culture of consumerism. Cheap electronic gadgetry also has been instrumental in perpetuating an extremely vulgar image of women and the idea that they are only for sexual gratification. Budding movie and TV actresses are clearly told: expose as much of your body as you can and, while dancing, make your bodily gyrations and contortions as titillating to men as you can regardless of vulgarity, if you want to survive in business. This also reinforces the notion among youngmen that women are meant to be objects of enjoyment, sexual gratification and lust and taking liberties with them is nothing objectionable.
While reacting to the situation, it is necessary to take into account the entire process of change driven by market forces, unpreparedness and insensitivity on the part of both the state and society, including the media, while evaluation such changes. The constant hype and insensitive projection of criminal acts against women by the media, particularly the electronic media, has distorted public view about the gendered role of women, their mobility, dress codes and stereotypical positions in society. Committing a crime is not enough, it must also be videotaped and telecast and graphically described and published in the print media as well. “The objective is not to prevent recurrence of such gory incidents but to titillate the base senses of the viewers and readers and play with the voyeuristic pleasure of unsound minds and selfish business interests”.
Take the national capital, Delhi, it accounts for 17.6 per cent of the total rape cases recorded in the country in 2011. This is in addition to other crimes including everyday acts of violence encountered by women and the general atmosphere of insecurity and paranoia generated by them. Violence against women working late night shifts in BPOs and call-centers is increasing, with girls from the North-eastern states have becoming special targets. Bangalore too has become extremely violent against women. As a social activist points out, “they are not safe on the road, in their homes or in their mother’s womb”. This happens because men consider themselves more powerful, physically and otherwise. As regards domestic violence, apart from the well-known causes, such as dowry, infidelity, neglect, alcoholism etc, another factor has crept : male intolerance of female occupying a similar, or higher position in career and a higher salary, resulting in jealousy. More than half of the people who go for counseling in cases of domestic violence are educated. Somes the crimes that the husbands commit against their wives in their homes are very cruel as they cannot tolerate their wives doing better than they.
Ironically, Tamil Nadu, a state ruled by the DMK and AIADMK for more than four decades also has recorded a sharp increase in the crime against women though both the parties swear by emancipation of women and keep promising bettering their lot. Though Jayalalithaa may have become rich and resourceful, women in Tamil Nadu remain unemancipated. Tamil Nadu occupies the top position in kidnapping and abduction of girls among the southern states, with minors accounting for about 30 per cent of the victims. The state is also known for a high incidence of honour killings and successive governments have done precious little to bring down the rate of violence and crime against women. Some Dravidian leaders openly speak against inter-caste marriages and punishing those who transgress the limits imposed by the village panchayats, which too are often dominated by castiest politicians.
It is noticed that the restrictions placed on women’s mobility are social, institutional and familial. The family is the first place where such restrictions are imposed, with pressure on compliance of social norms, including the fear of violence if she does not abide by them. Often women bear the responsibility even for violation of social norms by their wayward husbands. These norms differ from caste to caste and one social group to another, but all restrictive of women’s freedom and assertion of her human, family as well as, legal rights. The battle against crimes against women has to be fought, both at the societal and administrative levels, with better policing and stricter enforcement of the law.

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