HYDERABAD: The horror of what happened on New Year’s Eve in Bengaluru is still unfolding and if the horror wasn’t enough, the misogyny has been multiplied by obnoxious statements made by a series of lawmakers. G Parameshwara, Karnataka home minister, said:
“These things happen.” Samajwadi Party’s Abu Azmi went a step further by blaming the victims. As lawmakers get more and more obnoxious in their comments, the Bengaluru incident has once again reinforced a lesson girls learn very early in life–public spaces are not for you! Should you still defy and venture out and there’s a large unruly crowd, chances are that you will be molested, groped and even raped.
“On this fuckin new year some random guy tried to grope me while I was returning home from work and with so much ease he did as if he thought il not utter a word because I’m a fuckin scared woman and he has a reason because he’s drunk and let him escape,” Chaitali Wasnik, one of the victims of the mass molestation, posted on her Facebook.
While posting this, she might not have realised that she was giving words to the angers of millions of women, far away in Hyderabad, who otherwise had to swallow it up when eve-teased in public places, crowded buses, theatres, shopping malls, etc.
If you think this happens only on New Year’s Eve and only in a city like Bengaluru, you need a reality check. It happens everyday and most women are unable to do anything about it.
Anusha recounts her own horror story of being groped in a crowded bus. “I would take a bus after school for my tuition. That day too I took the usual bus after school. It was jam packed. As I stood there holding on to the handles of the seat, a middle-aged, sweaty man got up and stood beside me.
As the bus moved, he inched closer and closer and groped me,” she recalls and adds that though she stared at him in shock and anger, a sudden impulse of cowardice and foolishness stopped her from opening up and lashing out. “I was afraid, he would come up with “The bus was moving, what do you expect, it wasn’t intentional” or some lame excuse.”
For those who think women should be chaperoned if they are venturing out at uneartly hours, also need to think twice. Taniya Singh, says that she was shown erection of a shop keeper in broad daylight in a crowded bazaar. She narrates the horrendous experience, “I went shopping for shoes.
He held the shoe in his hand, sat down on the floor and asked if this is the size I wanted. I saw his kurta up with his erection. Then he got up and brushed his erection against my back on pretext of taking shoes out from the next cupboard.” She was too shocked to react. She was blank and walked out.
There is stastical data to corroborate such experiences and incidents. SHE Teams has registered 1,410 cases in 2016, of which 550 offenders were caught red-handed. Areas like Koti, Mehdipatnam, Yousufguda, places near Osmania University, SR Nagar, areas of Falaknuma and those around colleges and markets have been identified as hotspots for eve-teasing, stalking and voyeurism, which are criminal offences under the Nirbhaya Act. Last year also saw 36 cases registered under Nirbhaya Act by the SHE Teams.
But what is it gives these perpetrators such impunity?
D Kavitha, ACP, SHE Teams, says that its the obnoxious mindset fuelled by the desire to become ‘hero’ akin to those portrayed in cinema, that makes them do such things. “What is disturbing is that the fact that the offenders never feel guilty. They feel it is perfectly fine to tease and stalk a girl. They want to attract her attention but fail to realise this has a traumatising effect on the victim,” she says.