Follow A PoV

DNA Column – Lulling women into false sense of security

Posted on : January 9, 2012 By
Articles Gender Issues India Propaganda Society 

I was so inspired by all those who wanted to ‘save’ women by ‘covering them up’ that I decided to apply that logic to other issues. The result is today’s DNA column. 

 Open any newspaper and you will see small news items on burglaries. Break-ins and robberies are on the rise. Youngsters are taking to burglary to fund a lavish lifestyle. They rob from the upwardly mobile, the rich and fence the goods that they have stolen to earn cash that they use to buy more. They want a quick and easy way of earning money. Most burglaries are not violent and are opportunistic crimes. If you looked at the root cause of the crime it is that there are people in the world who have more than the robbers. And it is that ‘more’ that becomes an object of attraction. If people didn’t earn money, become rich and have wealth there would be no one who would want to rob them.
Robbery, as a crime, therefore is not caused by people who want to get rich quick, but by excessive wealth. Rather than criminalise robbery we should seek to get to the root causes of burglary and that is prosperity. People rob from those who have more. So, if everyone had less there would be no robbery. The solution for robbery is not better policing but to ban wealth.
Dowry deaths are not caused by excessively greedy people but by the institution of marriage. If people cohabited instead of getting married, then possibly there would be no question of dowry and therefore no dowry deaths. If parents stopped getting their children, especially their daughters, married, then the issue of dowry would cease to matter. So, if marriage is the cause of dowry, then rather than criminalising dowry would it not be more effective to ban marriages? After all, in cultures where marriages are no longer relevant you don’t hear of dowry deaths. So, the solution for dowry deaths is to ban marriages.
India has the highest number of traffic accidents in the world. Causes of death include speeding, poor safety, drunk driving, lack of helmets, lack of seat belts, jaywalking and the like. But, if you dig deeper and look at the root cause of road accidents, you will conclude that it is the presence of motorised vehicles. A vehicle weighing a ton, even travelling at a speed 20 kilometres per hour can do serious damage to life and limb. Obviously the solution to solving the terrible problem caused by road traffic is to ensure that vehicles don’t ever leave the parking bay. So, it will be within the law to buy a vehicle but not to take it out. No traffic, no traffic accidents. It is actually that simple.
If the logic in the above paragraphs seems a bit wonky, it is because it is. Throwing away the baby with the bathwater is no way of reducing a problem. If anything, it exacerbates it. But, the paragraphs above were in the same vein as those who, in the recent past, called for women to be more circumspect in their attire to prevent sexual assaults. If these people were members of far right religious organisations one wouldn’t have paid any heed to them. However, the people who called for women to be ‘better’ dressed included the Andhra Pradesh DGP Dinesh Reddy who linked flimsy fashionable clothing to rape; and KK Seethamma, the head of the committee against sexual harassment in Bangalore University, who believes that women wearing ‘obscene clothes’ invite rape. Her definition of modest includes full-sleeved blouses with saris and long kurtas with jeans. Neither Reddy nor Seethamma were speaking as private citizens. They were both speaking as authorities occupying positions funded by the taxpayer. One is a policeman who is supposed to make the world safer for all, the other is a teacher who is supposed to inculcate values, not dogma.
Telling women that dressing ‘properly’ will reduce chances of their being victims of sexual assault is lulling women into a false sense of security. In the National Crime Records Bureau report on all types of crimes that take place in India, among the more chilling statistics are rape figures. Every hour, two women somewhere in India are raped. Every third day, an elderly woman is sexually assaulted. About two girls aged under 10 are raped every day. Most of these are outside metros and cities in regions where women are dressed in a traditional manner. Fully covered. It wasn’t their clothes that caused the crime. It was their gender. The problem is not with what women wear, it is with society that allows men to get away with rape and blames the woman for inviting it.

 

17 thoughts on “DNA Column – Lulling women into false sense of security”

  4. This is a sad article but true. And this is happening in India where the men have been put to this state by the leaders/masters — sub standard, sub human level Raja’s and the praja has followed. The first follwers are the upper classes and then the bungling middle classes and finally, the hopeless classes all of them take their toll on the hapless woman.

    Is it the Kali Yug working or the Ghor Kali Yug?

    Then the main perpetrators , next are the media people – the miserable TV serials and the fetid movies made by SRK and gang. The whole bunch of them! In a land where Vivekanada came and Narada and other Rishis roamed. Miserable bunch of males!

    The fault lies at the top, the very top and you as a blogger do not write about it. Either you do not know it or do not wish to. You could follow some qualities of Anna Hazare. A simple guy with a monumental determination.

    The leadership and their lackeys have to shamed, Repeatedly shamed and put into structural rules from which there could be no escape. You could also ask the UN to intervene as it is becoming increasingly clear about the mettle of leadership and the bluderbuss that have created in the sixty odd years they have been here.

    We have largely made malls, “dance india dance” and many more economic nautankis which has made life hell . And for many women they : they are confused: This is life , they think. As Shiamak Davar tells them to do. Dance India Dance!

    This landmass is fast becoming like the parades of Rio. Goa has made a humble beginning. What foreigners think of India (the white ones) : I need not write. Case in point Anil Kapoor’s role in Mission Impossible 4 : The Ghost Protocol. And yet Times of India writes about Tom Cruise’s pants, Anil bhai throws in a party and the hero of DOn 2 says we are fast becoming better and best and bestest – the days are not far off when “India (I)” will produce/make files better then MI 4.

    Where are we?

    Reply

  5. “a teacher who is supposed to inculcate values, not dogma.”

    Trouble is, Harini, too many people conflate values and dogma. That teacher is, I am certain, sure in her mind that she is upholding some notion she has of “Indian values”.

    Thanks for this.

    Reply

  8. Very aptly put by Harini @calamur. In addition to the points she mentions, I’d like to remind the egregious DGP as well as the educated illiterate working at Bangalore University that if the costumes alone were the panacea for inviting rape, there would no instance of rape on the underprivileged sections of society. Haven’t we read about poor women being picked up and gang raped in moving vehicles in Delhi and other cities? What about the caste-based hate crimes? To believe that a girl ‘breaking’ the dress code invites rape is exactly the sort of reaction that allows the ‘randy’ men more confidence to make passes. The way a woman dresses is her own business just as it is with men. The downright lecherous among men often take to ‘flashing’ themselves at the properly dressed women. Wonder how the DGP and the Jurassic lady  will justify such behavior? Will they say that ‘men will be men’ and will continue to flash… and that women demurely  turn their heads away when confronted with such ‘flashing guns’. This will only take male chauvinism to dizzying heights. 

    Reply

  13. Event X happened. Person A attributes correlation to X. Which may or may not be correct. Person B assumes correlation to be causation and replies with an argumentation to prove why the causation is wrong. Ergo X is not caused by Person A’s implied correlation.

    If this weren’t as ignorant, it’d be funny.

    Did I not suggest you stop writing these columns? Trying to have an opinion/analysis on things every week without giving it enough thought is excusable when one makes a lot of money. I assume you aren’t, so why are you making yourself a fool for no apparent benefit? It baffles me.

    Reply

Leave a Reply