A friend emailed me today with a link to the Blank Noise Project, a blogging project developed to highlight the concept of "eve teasing" in India.
Eve teasing is the term given to the sexual harassment every Indian woman faces in the streets, every single day, without exception. In my experience, it's more prevalent in major cities than it is in more rural areas, though crimes against women continue to be perpetrated across the country.
I found the Blank Noise Project an extremely practical and interesting approach to a problem that has no easy solutions. Men in India are taught by older male role models, scenes from movies, and by their peers that this kind of harassment is an acceptable form of social behavior. In movies, particularly, it's extremely common for a man with his troupe of merry, shady men to burst into song at the object of his affections, and by the end of the movie (often by the end of the song) they've fallen in love. The problem lies in the social system that has only recently begun to accept a woman's equality in even nominal terms...and much work remains before women are truly seen and treated as equals in the country.
For those unfamiliar with the problem, I'll mention that it's not just a question of someone singing to you in the street. It also involves being groped and otherwise molested constantly, and having friends and relatives (even close family members) condemn you for exposing yourself to such a thing before they condemn the perpetrator. Often, a woman's refusal to succumb to eve-teasing leads to acid being hurled in her face by the scorned suitor, outright murder, rape, or other violence. Eve teasing can also take the form of a man or pair of men on a scooter or motorcycle reaching out to rip off a girl's ear rings as they drive past.
One of the blogs listed is this one by Megha Krishnan, a blogger of Indian origin currently based in Detroit, Michigan, in the United States. Her voice is an angry one, as are most of the women's voices I've heard on this issue. However, I found myself disagreeing with her; while her anger is certainly well-placed, her advice is not. She recommends that women keep their fingernails long, and attack / fight back when they are accosted as a general rule, claiming that this has worked for her.
As someone who has been involved in a few violent encounters in India, and having taken several years of martial arts and self-defense classes, I'll state categorically that this is asking for trouble. Situations are different, and must be judged with care. Sometimes, an unexpected attack might give you the opening you need to get away, but in other situations, it will simply inspire violence. Not all of these men are waiting to throw acid in a girl's face...some of them are, much more innocently, singing a song with a smile on their faces. Many more are reaching out for an idle grope, but wouldn't normally think to escalate the situation into violence. A violent response can either give you an opening or create a situation where you are fighting a man, or a group of men, who are (generally) stronger than you are. More worrying is that if this is your neighborhood, these men know where you live, creating opportunities for ongoing harassment for both the girl and her family.
I found myself agreeing much more with the writing at known turf. The author begins to compile a list of appropriate and inappropriate behaviour, and notes that some thing, such as "checking out" someone of the opposite sex or making a proposition, are actually perfectly acceptable, though uncomfortable, since many relationships and interactions are based on these initial steps, in some form or the other. She goes much further in identify the social basis for the eve teasing phenomenon in South Asia.
The Indian Penal Code does classify eve teasing as a criminal offense. But anyone who's lived in India for any period of time can tell you that the Indian Penal Code is meaningless...laws exist to allow the powerful a system of justifying their actions towards the less powerful. You cannot expect to walk in to a police station in Calcutta and have your problems addressed, unless you either have powerful connections or are willing to pay a substantial bribe. Reprehensible, perhaps, but that is the state of the system as it exists today. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between.
The other side of the Penal Code bears examination as well. A man accused of rape will be released on a Rs. 200 bail (about $4), while the girl and her family will have their names dragged through the mud as a result of the accusation. Most families see the girl's marriage hopes plummeting as a result of rape charges (Indian culture often places a high value on virginity, or apparent virginity, even today) and decide to simply let it pass. How do we expect eve-teasing to be taken more seriously, when we don't take rape seriously?
The solution isn't to approach the police, because the police are members of the offending system. A few years ago, a fight broke out on New Year's day, in Calcutta. Four men were attempting to drag a women off the back of a scooter. They succeeded, but before they could go any further a passerby intervened. The four ganged up on the good samaritan while the woman escaped; he later died of his wounds.
It turned out the good samaritan was an off-duty police officer. It also turned out that the four men who killed him were also police officers. There was a media circus over the event, and they were brought to trial, but when we're talking about a system where policemen are frequently involved in such acts, can anything but systemic social change be the answer? The Blank Noise Project has value in giving collective voice to the issue, something which is long overdue...and the first step towards engaging a population in dialogue to enact social change.
