The New
Year’s eve once against shamed humanity, when in the presence and “protection”
of 1500 policemen, women were touched, grabbed, abused without restraint on
Bangalore’s iconic MG Road.
There have been a spate of such despicable acts across the length
and breadth of the country that have come to light in the recent days that
seems to point out that there has been a serious discrepancy in the grooming of
our generation next.
The cases of molestation by two bikers, caught on camera, of a
working woman on a Bangalore street, biting the tongue of a burka clad woman by
a molester in Bangalore and another case of mass molestation in Delhi’s
Mukherjee Nagar by goons who even attacked the cops for intervening to protect
the woman.
The brazenness of uncouth hooligans gets supported, when the
police goes on a denial mode and says that “there is no evidence that it
happened” and when, the likes of Samajwadi Party leader, Abu Azmi or Karnataka
Home Minister G Parameshwara, suggest that ‘such things happen’ and advice
women to wear Indian clothes and not to go out late evening unescorted.
So who is the culprit?
I feel that the typical Indian mindset of male superiority
vis-a-vis female gender, which inhibits them to accept the fact, that today’s
women are equally liberated, especially, financially and intellectually, is the
root cause behind such appalling behavior of Indian men.
A few decades ago, the limit of influence of the women was
restricted to the extremities of their domestic domain. The present generation
of youth had mostly seen elder women folk tied down to the whims and fancies of
the men at home.
The young girls of this generation, on the contrary want to break
the shackles of male tyranny and become self reliant. Education and different
forms of electronic media has enlightened them and they have optimally utilized the liberty provided to them by their parents, who, in many cases had only girl
children or found the girl child more responsive then her male sibling.
The wide propagation of gender equality by media, NGOs and
governmental institutions encouraged the girls of the present generation to
carve a substantial niche for themselves in this male dominant environment.
The present day young men, especially those who have a low self
esteem, accruing out of shabby treatment meted out to them by the environment
owing to their inadequacies, exhibit their power (inferiority complex) by
overpowering girls and molesting them.
The deliberate segregation of boys and girls at home and
educational institutions right from their childhood, the rural-urban and the
small town-metro cultural divide is also one of the major reasons for such
incidents to take place. The mentality carried by the youth from conservative
backgrounds may result in them going overboard when given an opportunity.
There is also a small percentage of girls who take this liberty
for granted, especially those who had initially lived under a very tight
control of their parents. Such girls are sometimes unable to draw the line and
get caught in unsavory situations. It is always good to maintain your poise
and dignity......the others will always respect it.
The society must evolve and not degenerate with time. If we see
around us the mindsets are becoming more and more regressive rather than
becoming progressive. The capacity to give space to other castes, communities
and genders is progressively diminishing.
The flagging tolerance levels also acts as a catalyst for such
abnormal antisocial motions.
Men have no right to tell what women must wear or do and ought to
respect their honor and dignity.
There are
a number of legislation's in place to protect the rights of women. However, we
need to devise ways and means to implement these laws more stringently.
