Indian Express, March 17, 2016
(Op-ed in Indian Express)
(Op-ed in Indian Express)
When public figures speak violence, the
fallout goes beyond their immediate targets.
In ways seen and unseen, those most affected are often women.
Recently, we saw an illustration of this
during the Jat quota stir. In a sea of
men blocking highways and railway tracks, women were invisible. In fact, they were not there at all.
Yet, they figured, not as participants but
as targets. Although everyone seems to
deny that any molestation or rapes occurred at the end of February, there are several
reports that suggest that women were attacked and that most of them will not
speak out.
That is hardly surprising. Did we not see that in Muzaffarnagar in
September 2013? In the communal riots
preceding the 2014 general elections, only after the violence had subsided, an
estimated 60 people had died and 60,000, mostly Muslims, had been displaced,
did the stories of rape begin to be told.
Till today, there has been no closure. Just a few days ago, one of those cases was
closed because the survivor and her family “turned hostile”, another way of
saying that they were either intimidated, or decided to keep quiet for fear of
consequences.
Despite changes in the rape law, and an
increase in general awareness after the 2012 gang rape in Delhi, the reality
for rape survivors who fight for justice is either endless delay and
humiliation, or threats forcing them to withdraw charges. Statistics of the low conviction rate amply
illustrate this reality.
Muzaffarnagar and Murthal tell us the same
story. When there is public violence, by
way of riots or agitations, the consequence is often heightened levels of
violence against women. This is not
unique to India. Studies around the
world have established this reality in multiple locations. The most ghastly in recent memory is Rwanda,
where during the genocide in 1994 when Hutus systematically eliminated Tutsis,
in the course of 100 days of violence, an estimated half a million women were
raped or killed. The legacy of that
violence has still not been erased.
In the current atmosphere in India, where
statements are made almost on a daily basis about chopping off heads, slicing
tongues and taking revenge, there is real reason to worry. This kind of heightened violence, much of it
going unchallenged and even endorsed by the very people who should be stopping
it, leaves all women vulnerable, not just those belonging to the targeted
groups.
What this does is that it makes violence
acceptable as a way of settling scores.
If ministers in the government speak such language, and they get away without
being reprimanded, and are not even hauled up for hate speech, then what is to
stop any person from assuming that such talk, and the actions that follow, are
permissible?
While data has established that the
majority of incidents of violence against women occur in the home or familiar
neighbourhoods, a heightened atmosphere of violence affects women’s access to
the public space. At such times, the
problem is viewed as a breakdown in law and order. In fact, it is a direct
fallout of a culture of political violence that is deliberately perpetuated and
thereby becomes the norm.
The government needs to recognise this and
address it because it undercuts its stated efforts to “empower” women. Beti
Bachao and Beti Padhao will remain empty slogans if girls fear stepping out to
go to school or women are terrified at the thought of giving birth to another
girl who will have to confront increasing violence, at home and outside.
A survey conducted by the group
Breakthrough in 2014 in five states and 15 districts in India indicated that girls
on their way to school had to fight off sexually explicit verbal comments,
stalking and sometimes molestation. The
unsafe spaces women listed included bus stops, railways stations, open toilets,
public toilets, markets and streets. In
other words, practically all public spaces.
In election season, women will be more
constrained and restricted if these public spaces that they must necessarily
negotiate every single day also become the sites of political violence. The
fear of molestation and rape will hold young girls back from attending school,
prevent women from going out to work, and in myriad other ways directly affect
their mobility.
The more dangerous aspect is not just the
random violence in the public space, but the targeted one, when women become a
part of the plan to wreak vengeance by one group of men on another. This is what we saw in Muzaffarnagar. And this is what could repeat itself as the
electoral temperature rises, particularly in Uttar Pradesh.
These realities are constantly obscured in
the continuous talk about achievement and empowerment of some women, or in the
increasingly empty and consumerist agendas that now dominate the celebration of
International Women’s Day on March 8.
