In the last few months, we have seen hundreds of
incidents where a woman in India was molested, teased, sexually harassed,
and stripped in public, sometimes in the view of cameras and bystanders. One woman was thrown out of a moving train,
another was attacked by acid, and others were physically molested.
One of the immediate reactions from the media is that
it is a 'law and order' problem. What they mean is that we don’t give strong
punishment to the offenders, that the law is vague on these offences, or that the
police officers are not very keen on registering the cases or following up on
the case.
I, on the other hand, don’t think 'law and order' is the main
problem. While 'law and order' is one of the problems, it is not the primary one. There are few countries, like Saudi Arabia,
where the law is extremely strict, so much so that a convicted thief’s hand may be cut,
and yet there is rampant mistreatment and abuse of women in that country.
Also, I tend to think that most of these offenders, in countries like India,
take a high moral ground because many people tend to sympathize with
the offenders. In the recent past, many
administrative officers, police officers, organization heads and elected
political leaders have all blamed the woman when such harassments happened. They blamed the woman for inviting the man to
molest her by dressing provocatively.
