A Question of Respect

Sneha Krishnan, reporter- eCatalyst

It is rush hour on an ordinary day in Chennai and the bus stop is bursting at its seams. Inevitably one sees women sidling away, trying to prevent attempted molestations. Women trade tips. Take a bus before 1:30. Less of that kind there. Keep an umbrella with you for self defence. Take a ladies’ special bus. Trains are no better. Residents in fact say that women driving cars are no less vulnerable, as men on the roads rarely respect their space. “Eve-teasing” as the issue is euphemised is taken for granted for the most part. Public places of all kinds – from roads to places of worship are caution-ground for women.

An article that appeared in the City Express supplement of the New Indian Express on the 3rd of January says that the situation worsens in the night. Laws that force most establishments in Chennai to close down by eleven o clock keep the ordinary man (and woman) off the roads at late hours, allowing anti-social elements to take over. This in turn makes the city unsafe, particularly for BPO workers, journalists and others who work late. Further the article reports, that the city police are so sceptical about young women out late that women feel intimidated, a fact vouched for by residents of the city. In a shocking incident late on New Year’s Eve, the Express reports, a group of men went about hitting women on the road with sugarcane sticks.

Alarmingly, the “modesty” question persists and many women find themselves blamed for molestation. The Hindustan Times reports that 46% of the urban men they surveyed (from various cities) said women were “asking for it” if they went out at night. Worse, another 46% admitted to having felt physically aggressive towards women who swore. Four out of five men also admit to having been in a group that passed lewd remarks on a girl. Another article that appeared on January 5th, in the same newspaper quotes teenagers who also subscribe to sexist double standards, some even saying that while it would be acceptable for boys to go to pubs and have a drink, women doing so would be unseemly. The lack of respect for women in general is alarming.

Chennai has unfortunately shown an intolerance of women who do not conform to established mores. An actress who expressed her opinion on premarital sex was, last year harassed to no end for merely expressing her opinion. Moral Policing has gone hand in glove with prudish laws and much publicised prescription of strict “dress codes” in colleges around the city. “The culture cops of Tamil Nadu are menacing young people’s rights…targeting girls and women in a sanctimonious, sexist way” the Hindu wrote two years ago. The state of affairs remains the same. Tamil Cinema has only reinforced false standards of the “ideal Tamil woman” image and encouraged lewd jokes made at the expense of supposedly “immodest” women.

India’s struggles with molestation and women’s rights are ultimately a question of respect for women as fellow human beings. Objectification of women and rigid standards of “modesty” have resulted in the most shocking violations of liberty. The police has been a silent spectator in many cases, or has added to the “modesty” conditions and in some cases, even been the perpetrator of crimes. As the father of a recently molested Swedish tourist said, “There has to be respect…for women.”