The Lok Sabha has given its approval to the Criminal Law
(Amendment) Bill, 2013 that prescribes stringent punishment to sex offenders;
however, the voices of prominent parliamentarians show how the mindsets have
hardly changed.
JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav’s ‘humorous’ reminder, “Who among
us have not followed girls,” may have evoked peels of laughter in the House,
but there is nothing funny about it. Even while passing a law to protect women,
he has indirectly supported stalking.
I am sure thousands of women across the country who are
stalked do not agree with the JD(U) leader. There are frequent reports of
stalkers attacking women for spurning their advances or refusing proposals of
marriage. May be the likes of Sharad Yadav should see the faces of those women
disfigured in acid attacks by jilted Romeos before coming up with these funny
one-liners.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was also equally
worried about the law being misused or abused to settle personal scores. He
also fears that co-education will have to be abolished to protect boys from
legal trouble. SP parliamentarian Shailendra Kumar expressed his worries about
the provocative dressing of female actors in television serials and movies.
For all the thunder over the ‘controversial’ law, hardly
one-third of the members were present in the House.
If these satraps think that the good old way of life should
continue, they are also supporting institutions like khap panchayats that order
physical and sexual abuse of women as modes of punishment. The recent incident
of Punjab cops thrashing a woman who approached them to complain about
eve-teasers speaks volumes about what is ailing our system.
Every time there is a sexual assault, cops, politicians and
‘spiritual leaders’ don’t waste time in blaming the victim. How can there be
any hope for women of this country when those in charge of creating and
maintaining the machinery that is supposed to protect have a mindset that
approves and justifies the actions of the perpetrators of sexual violence?
In this great land (Bharat included), assault on women start
from the foetal stage itself. If she survives sex determination and selective
abortion centres, she enters a world where predators don’t differentiate
between children and adults. Throughout her life she is forced to restrict her
freedoms for fear of sexual assaults. With every incident of reported sexual
violence, her movements are further restricted and this, in turn, curtails her
opportunities and makes her more dependent on the patriarchal male
(father/brother/husband/son).
No matter how many laws we make, unless we are willing to
change our mindset about the inalienable rights of our women, they will never
fulfil their objectives.
(This article was published as the editorial column in
Postnoon on March 20, 2013.)
