HYDRA HEADED MONSTERS

Violence is a lived reality of a woman’s life that she alone experiences, suffers and endures. No amount of words can explain the pain and terror it causes because it is an experience that is personal. In a short story entitled “It was Dark” by Shashi Deshpande, a nine year old raped girl is in shock and when asked about the incident she can only repeat “it was dark”. This darkness is the subjective experience of every traumatized woman who falls a victim to violence be it sexual, domestic or social.

Violence against women is a hydra-headed monster that refuses to listen to reason; it is not intimidated by law; it refuses to make a retreat and that is why we need multi-pronged approaches to eliminate it. Violence, aggression and cruelty, wife bashing, rapes, acid attacks, murders and torture – indeed, this surfeit of violence is becoming more complex and manifest day by day. What reaches us is far less than what actually takes place and goes unreported.

Violence starts in the womb when a girl child is eliminated as a foetus. If she stays on to be born, she falls a prey to infanticide. Amartya Sen’s words “missing women” explains much more than the mere horror of it. Nothing can be more shameful than such acts of cruelty. Looking at the gravity of the situation, the central and state governments have started campaigns like “Beti bacho,” “beti anmol hai” and “save the girl child”. These campaigns have started showing positive results in improving the male-female ratio in many states including Himachal Pradesh.

Domestic violence which happens in the “private sphere” is difficult to track unless reported by the aggrieved party. “The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005” addresses most of the concerns relating to gender based violence. Domestic violence has been defined as any act that causes harm, injury or threat to the life, safety and well-being of a person. Under it physical, verbal, emotional, economic or sexual violence are covered and take into cognisance physical injury, psychological problems and economic inconveniences. The Act has provisions for quick and easy remedy, compensation and other relief measures.

One of the most saddening and frightening violence against women is of sexual nature under which rape, acid attacks, molestation and stalking are included. 

 Are girls any safer on our streets now? Does your sister, mother or daughter feel comfortable going out at night wearing whatever she likes? Have you been abroad? Have you ever felt how different you feel when walk with/as a girl outside India? We are nowhere close to that standard when it comes to safety for women. Rape is a bigger problem than anyone could have imagined, and has many affects and can actually destroy the life of its victims.

Rape is a crime that not only takes hurts someone for the moment, but it shatters their entire life. Most women never fully recover from being a victim of rape. It is a crime of sexual violence that causes long term emotional devastion in its victims. It is a community issue, and it is never the victims' fault.  

·        There are different types of rape, aquaintance and stranger rape. Aquaintance rape is rape by someone the victim knows and comprises eighty-four percent of total rapes. Fifty-seven percent of rapes take place during a date and fourty-three percent involve two or more perpetrators. Women who fight back and fight back immediately are less likely to be raped than women who did not. People are five times more likely to be raped by someone they know than a stranger.

·        Stranger rape is estimated to make up twenty to fifty percent of rapes each year.

·        Incest is also a form of rape, which is when a relative rapes a person

 There are 570 million women in India. Average longevity in India is about 70 years.If 5% of Indian women experienced a single rape in their lifetime (this would be low by international standards) then that adds up to 57 million rapes in a period of 70 years ,or an average rate of one rape every 90 seconds. Even this rate is probably much too low, because 5% is low, because some men are also raped, and because some people are raped more than once in their life. 

Nobody knows the true number, but every 10 seconds is more plausible than every 54 minutes...

In 2001, nine out of every ten rape victims were female. In 2001, there were 249,000 victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault. Of these 249,000, there were 102,000 victims of sexual assault, 63,000 were victims of attempted rape, and 84,000 were the victims of complete rape. One in two victims are under the age of eighteen.There are so many rape cases in india , because we refuse to admit it when there is one! The top answer goes on a long diatribe trying to "prove" the point by comparing it with a country with an even more number of rapes - just great! It refuses to even acknowledge that a vast majority of rapes go unreported in our country.

·        The ‘Study on Child Abuse India 2007’ revealed that more than 53% of children in India have probably been sexually abused and many have never shared the fact of this abuse with anyone. 

·        It is estimated that 150 million girls under 18 have been subjected to forced sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual violence

·        In India, marital rape is not even considered as a crime! This places India in the company of a handful of reputable countries including China, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Do you think even if we change the law-  any Indian women would dare to complain if her husband rapes her everyday?

In fact the issue of "marital rape" was brought in front of our esteemed law-makers, who rejected it in a report which argued:

it “has the potential of destroying the institution of marriage,”

“If marital rape is brought under the law, the entire family system will be under great stress,” adds the report.

"A new study has revealed 26 per cent of women in Pune, 23 per cent in Bhubaneswar and 16 per cent in Jaipur often have sex with husbands against their desire."

Rape is the most unreported crime. It has been estimated that ninety percent of all rapes go unreported because of legal procedures and the painful hospital exams. Women fear rape more than any other offense including murder, assault, and robbery, and they report levels of fear three times higher than mens.

Rape will be a problem and will remain a problem as long as we try to cover it up.

If food is rotten in your house, will you just cover it up, spray some perfume and proclaim everything is good? Of course not. Let's acknowledge the problem and throw it out instead of blaming the "Western Media" of "fabricating a rape-crisis"!