#Beijing25 || Viewpoint: George, Gender-based Violence and Social Inequality

By Angelin Anna George

Earth contains millions of animal species and they are all present in two types, a male and a female. This distinction is based on the biological differences and the category of distinction is the sex of the animal. So what is gender then? Gender is a social construct which was created to define man and woman. Women all over the world have experienced oppression because according to this social construct women were supposed to be meek and submissive; thus making them easy targets for oppression.

The asymmetrical relation between the two genders has always been cited as a reason for the inequality experienced. According to this asymmetric relationship, women are considered as the secondary or other sex that is weak and incapable of being productive; while men are considered as the superior and productive sex. Years of suppression of the female sex has had drastic effects on the society as a whole. Sometimes, women limit themselves because of the ideals that have been driven into their minds over the years. In other cases, men limit women to a life inside the house because their faulty education taught them to blindly follow the patriarchal norms. Basically, the social construct of gender has embedded itself deep in the minds of most people. This leads to problems such as social inequality amongst men and women. Individuals who still view women as the weaker sex believe that they cannot handle professional jobs and discriminate against any female who is striving to make a different life for her.

People all around the world are always striving to matter and to assert their dominance at some point in life. Often, the safest place that men can assert their dominance without having their masculinity questioned with resistance is at home with their wife. This is the cause for most cases of gender based violence. Most women do not stand up for themselves because of the norms and values that they are taught as a child. The problem lies in the fact that these values and norms were taught by a patriarchal society that did not value women. Therefore, these women believe that they are only suited for such a life wherein they have to blindly serve their husband.  Domestic violence as a form of abuse can be physical, verbal, emotional, economic, religious and sexual abuse. It ranges from subtly demeaning woman to brutal assaults such as marital rape. Gender based violence can also been seen in the way women are treated by unknown men in the society, for example, most women have experienced the gaze and lewd comments of strange men.  

In conclusion, the female sex has had to deal with years of oppression and in fact, they are still dealing with inequalities in all phases of their life. Yet, this oppression is currently not as bad as our ancestors have had to face. Since most women have gained resilience and strength from the hurdles they have had to overcome in life, they are able to slowly end change this misogynistic attitude of the society. Even though it is a very slow process, it has resulted in a lot of good. Most firms and government sectors have hard and fast rules about the minimum number of women employees, and violence against women have been deemed as a criminal offence. Therefore, women as a whole have started to fight against this oppression and stand up together for their right to live their life.

#Beijing25 || Viewpoint: Jeba, Gender-based Violence and Social Inequality

By Nancy E. Jeba

This world is a place which still has social inequality that results in violence. With social inequality comes social injustice and violence. Gender inequality is a type of social inequality. Gender inequality paves the way for gender-based violence. With the norms set in place by these inequalities, crimes against women are noticed more than crimes against men which is comparatively less than the crimes against women.

One of the social inequalities is that women get payed less than their men counterparts. Statistics show that women earn less than eighty percent of what men earn. Women hesitate to ask for a raise in pay because they are afraid that they might come off as greedy and rude. Also, women are promoted less than men and this is visible in the negligible number of women in positions such as CEO’s and top earners. There are various other instances of gender inequality. It begins from the moment of birth when the girl child is given less care and less opportunities for education. Because of child marriage which still exists, girls do not receive education necessary to make them independent because lack of education will also decrease the scope for employment. Women and girls are also in greater risk of being human trafficked. Apart from these ways of inequality, women also face gender-based violence.

“Gender-based violence (GBV) is violence that is directed at an individual based on his or her biological sex OR gender identity. It includes physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse, threats, coercion, and economic or educational deprivation, whether occurring in public or private life.” Gender-based violence arises due to the fact that there is gender inequality prevalent in the world. Women face more violence and one out of three women are found to have experienced physical or sexual violence at least once in their lifetime. Women and girls are the ones who are at most risk. But violence against men, boys and sexual and gender minorities are also committed.

Domestic violence is the most common form of violence women is exposed to such as forced abortions, marital rape and bride burning. Women are forced to abort the foetus if it is found to be a female. Moreover, marital rape is not considered a crime in some countries, thus giving men the right to rape his adult wife. Marital rape needs to be recognised as a crime because women have the right over their own body and marital rape is violating their personal space. At an extreme level, if the woman refuses to pay more dowry, she is burned by her husband or his family. Dowry reduces the value of women to mere objects and the world needs to change so that dowry is not required for a woman to get married. Apart from married women, women in relationships also face domestic violence from their intimate partner. Along with domestic violence, women also face violence in their workplace. Workplace violence is often overlooked. Women are abused physically, sexually and mentally in their workplace by their co-workers and their employers.

Women face violence in many forms due to the social and gender inequality prevalent in today’s society. While the empowerment of women is fought for, the violence faced by men is still a silent crisis. Only when social inequality is erased and gender equality formed, will all the violence against women and men stop. It is high time to start trying to reform our flawed society.

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#Beijing25 || Viewpoint: Silvia, Gender-based Violence and Social Inequality

By Catharinal Silvia.M

As everyday news clearly portrays, we live in the 21st century where everybody is considered to be equal and free. These monotonous lines are deeply rooted in our brains that we don’t stop and think what the true reality is . We often come across violences against women and children and we are manipulated to believe that gender based violence can only be against women which is not true. Gender based violence is considered to be violences against any particular gender which need not only have to be associated with feminine characteristics .It should be clear that gender based violence can be against both men women or any other gender. But the amusing fact is that more than 80% of gender based violence is are against women which proves why gender based violences are associated with women and children.

Since time began, we are told and we have experienced in histories how women had to go through gruesome inequalities which ruined their lives. Even though these inequalities against women are not that ghastly as it was before in the earlier times we still find these ideas etched in peoples minds.

Lots of works have been established which talks of how women go through teriffic horrors in their lives and mostly these things seem monotonous when we go through them because it has become a fashion to talk about gender based violence but not take any action against it. Gender based violence and social inequality are intertwined with each other because these violences happen on the base root of social structures and backgrounds. Beginning with our own households and our own practices, these ideas are fed into children’s minds since they were born and that’s where the problem begins.

If we take a typical Indian household, we always see that a male child is given more important and is treated superior to any girl child . 

We could take examples from western and eastern countries, which we considered elite and good. The production of Barbie dolls and the market it created cannot be forgotten. These Barbie dolls came to our households as just dolls but it did not only create entertainment but also a illogical standard which cannot be erased even today. The clear cut shape that the Barbie doll portrayed has become the standard shape that any woman has to have in order to be looked up on. This has so much to do with social inequality as women who  don’t fit into these stereotypical standards were ill treated, mocked and body shamed.

Another revolutionary fact is the creation of man and woman. People always say that woman was created out of man and so she has to be not equal but a below him. These ideas are so much put in our minds that wherever we go in any part of the world there is always conflict faced by a woman.

For example in workplaces, schools ,colleges ,anywhere in any part of the world a woman has always have to face some kind of challenge be it  inequality, crimes , safety, bodyshaming, criticisms and more.

Human minds are so much manipulated that women cannot do the work that a man does, as it is very rare to find women in the fields where physical strength is required. And if by any chance a woman appears in the field of maybe the army or the Navy or somewhere where physical strength is required she is looked as if she’s an alien.

When it comes to education there is a lot to look upon. Even now in remote places of India  women and girl children are deprived of proper education.Education allows us to think for ourselves, when we don’t think for ourselves we will definitely have to go by the rules of another person.

We could not only say that only women undergo these kinds of inequalities in social backgrounds also transgenders go through brutal crimes almost everywhere. These gender based violences have to be strictly looked upon because we’re lied to that everything has changed.

#Beijing25 || Viewpoint: Pradeesh, Gender-based Violence and Social Inequality

By Anushka Pradeesh

Gender-based violence is now a days highly prevailing issue in our society leading to social inequality. From ancient days till today men are considered to be superior race in this world. This ideology have played a major role in creating gender-based violence and social inequality among women, transgender people and men.

Women are prone more to gender based-violence in this world. They are facing harassments at homes, streets, work places and even in public places. A survey proves that around eighty one percent of women have experienced sexual harassment at some point in their lives. In India divorce is considered as a bad act. As a result of which many women tend to tolerate the harassments imposed on them by their husbands. Each and everyday we are witnessing the news of a girl being raped in the newspaper. It’s just a news for the readers but in reality it’s the life of the girl and the family which is shattered and torn into pieces. Justice is never served to them. The main reason for this violence is the loop holes available in the judicial system. Women are deprived of safety not only in the outside world but also in social media. Cybercrime cases are increasing extremely in this pandemic situation. Women have lost liberty to share their photos in social media. The main reason is morphing of images which is taking place as an illegal business at higher levels. Many women have lost their lives due to cybercrime. Child marriage is yet another prevailing issue during this pandemic. A study proves that around twenty seven percent of girls in India are married before eighteen and seven percent before fifteen. As per the government records the government have stopped around 5,584 child marriages but still there are yet more cases which none are aware of. Girl children married at the young age are forced to face harassments not only from their husband but also from the entire household and society. All these gender viloences portray woman as weaker gender unable to speak up for themselves leading to social inequality. A great example for social inequality is women doing equal work as men and are paid only one-fourth of the men’s salary. Still today gender stereotypes remains unchanged.

Transgender people are the people who are more discriminated in the name of gender. The violence and and humiliations faced by them are unseen by the society. Literally the society turns it’s blind eyes towards these people. They are hated by their own family members and relatives. The harassments faced by them begins from home. They are not only physically harmed but also are experiencing mental pressure and depression.In search of peace they runaway from their homes. They are not given equal job opportunities. Even if their parents are supporting them the society is not really showing any acceptance to them which results in social inequality. For instance, parents are not willing to allow their child study with a transgender kid at schools promoting gender stereotypes and violence. In such a case social inequality begins from a place where equality should be inculcated in the children.

Men tend to face social inequality at certain phases of their lives. For example, in some firms there is this policy of treating people on the basis of caste which results in social inequality. Social inequality exists in this society mainly due to caste discrimination, biased religions and societal status. These three factors imposes social inequality irrespective of gender.

Gender-based violence and social inequality can be completely abolished when each and every Indian citizens are accepting every human beings as their kit and kin without discriminating anyone on the basis of gender, caste and class hierarchy. Equality will strive in our country only when our perspective changes.

“Be the change you want to see in the world”

                                                                         – Mahatma Gandhi

So let the change begin from you and me. Let equality strive in our society.

Ladies’ Special

I travelled in a “Ladies Only” taxi for the first time this week. The 26 km commute from the airport was one of discovery–that many women work outside their homes in this megapolis at great personal cost.

I was walking to the taxi stand when a girl in her mid-20s, in trousers and sharp pin-striped shirt, approached me asking if I needed a cab. She was from “XYZ” car company that ran a fleet taxi service for women with women drivers.  She told me she drove a Mahindra Logan and for my destination she would charge by the km and give a receipt.  I decided to try it and hopped in. Alas, we barely went 20m when the car stopped.  And then came the first discovery: some men will not lose any opportunity to pull down a woman they see in a job  that has traditionally been their preserve.

A bunch of Cool Cab drivers sidled up to the car – one started mocking the driver “J”  for the crappy car she drove, another patronisingly asked her if she knew what to do, a third asked her if she knew how to switch between CNG & petrol . While she opened up the bonnet, a few more mean comments came by. She sat back in car, called a colleague to take her fare ( i.e., me) and then called her company to report the problem.

While I waited in her car for the next cab to come, I asked her what she would do. She said she would move the car to the side and go home. The company would send a towing van when they could arrange for it. I worried for her safety even in the supposedly secure premises of India’s busiest airport.

“M” came by a few minutes later. She expertly transferred my bags into her Hyundai Accent and we drove off. On discovering I spoke the local language, M spent the next 26 kilometres telling me her life story.  Having lost her mum to cancer 2 years earlier, M gave up on a college degree. Her older sister had just gotten married, her 2 younger siblings were under 10 and she had finished class 12.  Her painter dad needed another income to pay off medical loans and get the household running.  M’s neighbour was a lady-cabbie and she decided to give it a go. She got through her driving test and training and got a job as one of the 25 or so lady cabbies of the city. The system worked like this: every fortnight she paid the cab company 9000 rupees; the rest of her earnings, less the cost of fuel, was her income (around10-15000 Rs. p.m) . She said she preferred doing at least 1 airport trip a day and then came my second discovery: M did not use a public toilet anywhere in the city other than the airport. Said she “held” herself because the public toilets were dirty or wet or simply unusable.  If she was lucky, she got a chance to use a facility at a fare’s office building.

This reminded me of Sujata Anandan’s article. When the physiological needs of a woman member of Maharashtra State’s Cabinet is not factored in by colleagues, the needs of women taxi drivers come low in the pecking order of responsibilities of governments and municipalities towards its citizens.

Makes me wonder:

• What is the role of regulatory bodies when it comes to behaviour of its members?
  It’s bad enough a lady cabbie is ribbed in broad daylight with a passenger sitting in her vehicle, what happens if some of those men are drunken louts, at night?  The Taximen’s Union is not the most liked group of people in the city; this experience confirmed that many of its members have one hell of a mean streak. They rage against change in a way that is hurtful beyond belief and the Union has no interest in enforcing some basic human values in them. In few cities will less civilised people be in charge of passenger transport. How can we claim our place at the high table of world powers if we cannot ensure some order among our taximen?  I hope some good Samaritans would have helped J push her car aside at the airport that day because not one of those Cool Cab drivers showed any inclination to help.

• Just how high are the cards stacked against women?  We talk of reservations to acquire political power but what about creating an environment where they can work without facing hostility?

• And finally: just what is it about us and poor sanitation?  Why can’t we build more toilets and having built them why can’t we keep them clean ? Incidentally, you know when you are going past the men’s loo at the airport arrival lounge–the stink is in the air. Tells me whoever designed the ventilation system didnt do a good job . Of course,  it would help if the airport authorities invested in some air fresheners too.

Or maybe we must have self cleaning loos everywhere and pray to Swachcha Narayani instead.

Gender Violence as Insecurity: Research Trends in South Asia, new study

Anupama Srinivasan, who runs the Gender Violence Research and Information Taskforce at Prajnya, received a grant last year from the Global Consortium on Security Transformation to undertake a study on the state of gender violence research in South Asia. The study has just been published and we are proud to share it with you.

Anupama Srinivasan, Gender Violence as Insecurity: Research Trends in South Asia, Global Consortium on Security Transformation, New Voices Series, No. 9, February 2011.

Domestic Violence and Diplomacy: New links

This case of the diplomat accused of domestic violence raises so many important questions, that it is worth logging interesting commentary links here.

Salil Tripathi, Immunity from Justice, LiveMint.com, January 19, 2011.

Swarna Rajagopalan, Truth, Justice and Protocol, Asia Security Initiative Blog, January 20, 2011.

Marital rape and the law

A rare editorial on gender violence, from today’s Indian Express.

An offence, of course

It is a cry that is often muffled within the walls of a home, and one that cannot find justice easily even when it reaches the hallowed halls of our courts. For marital rape is still not spelt out as an offence in India. Which is why, when the government conveyed to the Supreme Court the necessity to treat forced sex between husband and wife as rape and amend laws accordingly — the proposal was made a couple of years ago by the Law Commission — the sense of urgency with which we have to respond to violence against women calls for reiteration.

Section 375 of the IPC archaically qualifies sexual intercourse between husband and wife as rape only if the wife is less than 15 years old.

Women have to take recourse to 498-A of the IPC to protect themselves against “perverse sexual conduct by the husband”, or to the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act. A serious debate on marital rape, combined with a willingness to change laws, began again last year, when the department of legal affairs drafted the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, based on recommendations of the women and child development ministry and the National Commission for Women. The intention was to amend various sections of the IPC, the Criminal Procedure Code, and the Indian Evidence Act to recognise new categories of sexual assault. We can no longer afford to dither on this. We need to debate this as well, without treating marital rape as taboo or resorting to euphemisms, but looking at it as a social, criminal problem.

 

The music we love, the moments we would hate to live

I was watching the Jhalak Dikhla Jaa premiere last week and was appalled when one of the performers staged the circumstances of a gang-rape to open her performance. She danced, petite, delicate and in faux distress as a large group of tall male dancers in black moved around her menacingly. I was not appalled because I work on Prajnya’s gender violence campaign. I work on the campaign because this is a circumstance I would find appalling, and it is scandalous that it is considered artistic foil for a competitive dance performance that has nothing to do with violence.

Surfing channels a little later, I watched one of my favourite songs and actors. And thought, not for the first time, whether in Hema Malini’s place, faced with someone other than Dev Anand and a host of cameras and film crew, I would find the song or situation in the least bit beguiling. Consider this: you travel for work with a male colleague and cannot be in your room without finding him peering through every window and opening! It would actually be terrifying.

Pal bhar ke liye, Johny Mera Naam, featuring Dev Anand and Hema Malini

Another song that really is criminally catchy is “Khambe jaisi khadi hai,” from Dil. In this very sexist, menacing number, Aamir Khan and his friends mock new classmate Madhuri Dixit for daring to not respond to their overtures.

Khambe jaisi khadi hai, Dil, featuring Aamir Khan and Madhuri Dixit

The menacing tone of this is taken forward to the rape simulation in the film, which is Aamir Khan’s character’s way of proving to her that rape charges should be made seriously. Well, that’s not the message you remember first though–what you remember is that the potential victim falls in love with her assailant.

People made a huge fuss about ‘Choli ke peechhey kya hai,’ but I have always found Madhuri Dixit’s hit, ‘Chane ke khet mein’ a great deal more scandalous. Perhaps my understanding is faulty, but does she not talk about being accosted in the fields and ‘jora-jori’ chane ke khet mein? How is coercion in the gram-field appropriate for any celebration?

Chane ke khet mein, Anjaam, featuring Madhuri Dixit

But all these three songs are catchy, and the first one is really a classic, so quietly, like a sugar-coated pill, stories about violence slip into our playlists and we listen to them with pleasure rather than horror.

I was thinking about this and came up with three examples, and three Hindi examples, because this is what I listen to and this is what came to mind. I am sure there are lots of other examples. Do share them. Let’s see if we can come up with a long list of songs that really should be banned, if only we could get them out of our heads! At least, let us tempt the possibility that someone will read this post and its responses and think: hey, actually this is not a cool song or dance situation! A girl in these circumstances is actually more likely to be traumatised or screaming for help rather than dimpling back in exasperation or dancing beautifully!

Workplace Sexual Harassment: New Indian Law

The Indian cabinet just approved the introduction of the Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010. Law Resource India describes the proposed bill here, and provides links to related articles. So far, action in workplace sexual harassment cases has been governed by the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court of India in the Vishakha case in 1997.