Deepti Theresa, Research Associate, ANTRI
Who is responsible? When it comes to answering this question in terms of violence against women, there is a range of answers to it. There is no complete or fixed answer as different forms of violence have different reasons behind it. Violence against women has taken different forms in the recent years. But one thing that is common among all forms is the fight between the powerful and the powerless. And, this disparity had originated since the gendering of society.
Since times immemorial, India has been a Patriarchal society where men have been superior. Our culture and society has been molded in such a way that right from the growing up years of children, they are given gendered roles. A very meager section of society still believe that there hadn’t been any difference in bringing up of brothers and sisters. But the vast reality remains the same. Differences do exist in behavioral patterns and gendered roles frame our society. These gendered roles haven’t given the strength to women to fight violence but have given them the strength to tolerate the worst forms of violence.
At the same time the gendering process has put men in powerful positions. And this power has become a cause of different forms of violence against women. Very closely attached to power is the fear of women becoming equal to them. Hence they try to suppress them in every other way, be it physically or mentally.
The main agents to gendering being the family, school and society they have made up the mindsets of people. And it is these mindsets that are passed on to the other generations.
Looking at the crimes against women and the background of the criminals, it is noted that when it comes to sexual violence, profiles of the criminals shows that they are from broken families, poverty-stricken, dropouts, heavy alcoholics and drug abusers.
Domestic violence and dowry deaths is clearly a power play where women are considered inferior and treated as an object who will absorb all the anger and frustration of the family and still remain silent.
Revenge and selfishness is another reason for cases of murder and acid attacks, where the woman is targeted if she doesn’t accept a proposal or if she is in a better position than the husband.
Trafficking and prostitution of women occurs where women are treated as sex objects, a commodity for sale. Just to earn a little money to survive, women are forced into flesh trade.
These mindsets have been brought about from the people around us. Therefore when we talk about finding solutions to these problems, the target is the socialization process.The upbringing of children, the education that they get and the people they move around with have a very important role to play.
While this answers the question to bringing up of a better society, the other half still remains a difficult goal to achieve. And that is the present situation of crime against women.
Why is this increasing day by day? The main reason behind this is that the laws in our country are inefficient and they don’t cover up all aspects of the crime. The investigation procedures are poor and in most cases there is victimization of the complainant. Blame-game and politics add onto it where power influences and money takes the lead. Even if laws are present, they are not implemented properly. Poor judicial response leads to cases to remain pending in courts for years together. After 8 years of the crime, the victim got justice in a case of rape that happened in the A&N islands. Often knowing the fact that neither the police nor the law makers can help the victim, the victim commits suicide. If this is the situation of our Judicial system where speedy justice is not possible, then what could be expected from other agencies?
A set of guidelines and protocols must be issued to ensure that any woman approaching the police for redressal of to violence finds adequate solutions. The criminal justice system has to be bolstered to improve the conviction rates. Educating the youth is also important. There are a multitude of reasons leading to violence against women. Until and unless those reasons are addressed violence would continue and in coming years there would be newer forms of violence against women.
