Activism and Women’s Rights in India

Adding to my previous conversation about toxic masculinity in India, the subject of activism in India and women’s rights is another that can spark up some very interesting conversations about Masculinity and Femininity in India.

In 2012 there were huge protests in New Delhi about women’s rights after a twenty three year old student was gang raped. Protests such as this were not uncommon however in this case the protest got to an intense and almost violent stage that the government imposed curfews for everyone. So many women and men too were pleading for more safety schemes to be put in place in order to protect women from tragedies such as this. The protection and overall system in place to protect women in India is undoubtedly broken and in need of serious evaluation.  Accusations such as sexual assault are not taken as seriously as they should be, when a lot of young women speak up about the assault they have endured sometimes close to nothing is done to help them or take down their abusers. For example, in the 1972 case of Mathura who was a teenage girl at the time, was brought into a police station for questioning due to her involvement with her boyfriend at the time, they were wanting to elope. However, while she was in custody she was raped by two of the officers working in the station at the time, not only were they working their but they were in charge of the investigation too. The two officers were later put on trial but a statement made during the session stunned so many, maybe more now than back then. The officers were acquitted on the grounds that because Mathura had a boyfriend she was "habituated to sexual intercourse" and therefore possessed "loose moral character". 

How can we excuse such a disgusting and immoral act all because this young girl ‘already had a boyfriend’. What allows someone to not only do something so wrong to a young girl but to get away with it as well. These men were adults, taking advantage of a situation and a girl who we imagine was already scared from the situation she found herself to be there in the first place. Mathura is one of many women in India who find themselves trapped in a life that will inevitably lead them to something similar or as horrific as this. We cannot put all of the blame on one thing but the toxic masculinity culture that takes over so many lives in India is a main culprit. If so many men are being taught to behave in certain ways towards women, who is left to help the women who have endured such painful experiences? When men are committing these crimes and more often than not it is a man deciding the punishment, how are these same women expected to get the justice they deserve?

This is what so many women and men are fighting for across the globe, but more specifically in India, where the need for such changes is as desperate as any. We would like to think that things have moved slightly forward since 1972 but unfortunately not nearly as much as it should. It doesn’t mean however that Mathura’s case did not make waves of its own. After immense protesting that erupted after the case was revealed a law passed that ‘prohibited the public release of any assault victims identity, penalised sexual offences by custodial personnel (I.e., police officers), and put the burden of proof on the perpetrator’. The women’s movement was spurred on by Mathura’s case and inspired so many women to stand up and protest again and again in order to make important and necessary movements. All of which they should’ve had all along.

What India has done is focus on creating a social environment that is pro-women. However, when fighting for these sort of causes sometimes a conversation needs to be had about things that are more strenuous. The teachings in India need to be changed too, what men are taught in India about life and what is expected of them when it comes to women is a huge factor into why we see so many cases like Mathura’s. Teaching young men that when they are to be a husband the women are to behave in very specific ways. No meaning yes for example, you cannot teach young men and even women that when a woman says no she really means yes. These men will therefore grow up believing a false narrative about women and how there they are mindless people. There wants and decisions do not matter, and whether or not they think it’s right it wrong the man has the final say in what happens. This is not something that should still be taught today, now more than ever we see what truly matters and how each person is not what everyone assigns to them when they are growing up. 

Bibliography:

Website - https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/activism-and-womens-rights-in-india/