Violence against women in India

[hillman32]

Every hour 18 women are abused in India made me write this. But, what are the different kinds of abuse?

1. Domestic violence that includes demands for dowry and harassment by in laws and husband
2. Rape by relatives and unknown people
3. Parents forcing marriage on a girl
4. Brothers attempting to control her movements
5. Working women being forced to carry out all the domestic chores without any help from the husband

The above list can go on and on without end.

Though most of the educated Indians surely share the concern, we cannot be sure if all those concerned people knew the root cause of the problem. Let me first look into the root causes and then see if there is any solution to the problem.

Root causes

1. Social conditioning:

The social conditioning of how men should behave and how women should behave made the society to mould men and women in a different manner. While men can behave improperly with women while in a group, we rarely see the women behave in the same manner. Has any one heard about a group of women abusing a single man? Very rarely such a thing happens and if it happens, the news coverage about such women will be heinous. A similar behavior by men at multiple places will not get such coverage. That means society subconsciously expects only men to abuse women. If girls are also brought up without inducing fear in them and they too grow up with the same naughty behavior as men exhibit, there will be many men who will surely fear and run away when they look at women. In such a society where gender difference is minimised, the cases of abuse and violence will be reported just the way some other crimes are reported rather than showcasing as crime against women.

While the above applies to all the countries in the world, India has institutionalized the behavior of women in such a manner that it is acting detrimental to women’s interests due to the back seat taken by women. Families bring up girl child in the most protected environments and the girls never will be able to develop the courage required to face the abusers. The same families will not monitor the boys and allow them to move freely along with their peers at any age. The boys thus develop not only the courage to face the society, but many of them even become naughty with respect to behavior with women. These boys rarely think that it is a mistake or crime to do so. They just believe that it is manly to behave in such a manner due to the influence passed on from the peers and of course seniors. Such conditioning has been passed on and on between generations.

2. Biological reasons:

Company of girl is important for a boy and vice versa as well. It is not just for marriage. Such a company is required in every age during the growth of the children as adults. If a man is brought up in such circumstances and has been between women throughout the life during school and college and finally at work, he will not look at women with awe. Many of the women abusers come from backgrounds where they have less interaction with women. In spite of the fact that they study in co-education schools and colleges, if the schools/colleges have social conditioning in such a manner that boys sit separately and girls sit separately, the actual mix up and understanding of the opposite sex does not happen and the people from both the sexes look at the actions of the ones in opposite sex with awe. That creates intense desire to know about the persons in the opposite sex. This desire will some day blow up into a wrong doing due to the biological need of the individual. Also due to the risk of unwanted pregnancy for women and with no such fear for a man, the woman becomes more vulnerable.

3. Physical strength:

It is a proven fact that a man is physically powerful than a woman. This is the basic reason why the abuser is the man most of the times and not the woman. Things might have been probably different if a woman was more powerful physically. The society would have achieved gender equality long back had the nature created the woman powerful than a man. It is always safe to have the one who should bear the pregnancy more powerful. There is nothing for a man to fear even if he is weak as he does not have the fear of pregnancy.

4. Peer influence:

Peer influence will make women fear the men and the same peer influence will give courage and sense of satisfaction in men to chase women and abuse them.

Solution

Long term solution:

1. Proper education curriculum should be created to ensure peer influence is made even in both the sexes.
2. Ensure that the boys and girls mix with each other from very young age so that people take the opposite sex casually than with awe
3. Kill all the social stereo types
4. Men get all their confidence initially due to group behavior and during that phase observe that the woman fears and runs. The confidence will later allow the men to take on the women all alone as well. The solution will be ideal to curb such thoughts in men, but it is not practical. Hence the most practical solution is to mould women also in such a manner that when in groups men also fear them and run. That will slowly bring the equality of sexes.

Short term solution:

1. Create strict laws to counter the menace
2. Equip women with self defense techniques
3. Promote literacy in women
4. Respect single women as well and do not create social pressure on their marriage
5. Make the women aware of their rights created through law and make the social organisations accessible

 

[raw@war]

Every hour 18 women are abused in India made me write this. But, what are the different kinds of abuse?

1. Domestic violence that includes demands for dowry and harassment by in laws and husband
2. Rape by relatives and unknown people
3. Parents forcing marriage on a girl
4. Brothers attempting to control her movements
5. Working women being forced to carry out all the domestic chores without any help from the husband

The above list can go on and on without end.

Though most of the educated Indians surely share the concern, we cannot be sure if all those concerned people knew the root cause of the problem. Let me first look into the root causes and then see if there is any solution to the problem.

Root causes

1. Social conditioning:

The social conditioning of how men should behave and how women should behave made the society to mould men and women in a different manner. While men can behave improperly with women while in a group, we rarely see the women behave in the same manner. Has any one heard about a group of women abusing a single man? Very rarely such a thing happens and if it happens, the news coverage about such women will be heinous. A similar behavior by men at multiple places will not get such coverage. That means society subconsciously expects only men to abuse women. If girls are also brought up without inducing fear in them and they too grow up with the same naughty behavior as men exhibit, there will be many men who will surely fear and run away when they look at women. In such a society where gender difference is minimised, the cases of abuse and violence will be reported just the way some other crimes are reported rather than showcasing as crime against women.

While the above applies to all the countries in the world, India has institutionalized the behavior of women in such a manner that it is acting detrimental to women’s interests due to the back seat taken by women. Families bring up girl child in the most protected environments and the girls never will be able to develop the courage required to face the abusers. The same families will not monitor the boys and allow them to move freely along with their peers at any age. The boys thus develop not only the courage to face the society, but many of them even become naughty with respect to behavior with women. These boys rarely think that it is a mistake or crime to do so. They just believe that it is manly to behave in such a manner due to the influence passed on from the peers and of course seniors. Such conditioning has been passed on and on between generations.

2. Biological reasons:

Company of girl is important for a boy and vice versa as well. It is not just for marriage. Such a company is required in every age during the growth of the children as adults. If a man is brought up in such circumstances and has been between women throughout the life during school and college and finally at work, he will not look at women with awe. Many of the women abusers come from backgrounds where they have less interaction with women. In spite of the fact that they study in co-education schools and colleges, if the schools/colleges have social conditioning in such a manner that boys sit separately and girls sit separately, the actual mix up and understanding of the opposite sex does not happen and the people from both the sexes look at the actions of the ones in opposite sex with awe. That creates intense desire to know about the persons in the opposite sex. This desire will some day blow up into a wrong doing due to the biological need of the individual. Also due to the risk of unwanted pregnancy for women and with no such fear for a man, the woman becomes more vulnerable.

3. Physical strength:

It is a proven fact that a man is physically powerful than a woman. This is the basic reason why the abuser is the man most of the times and not the woman. Things might have been probably different if a woman was more powerful physically. The society would have achieved gender equality long back had the nature created the woman powerful than a man. It is always safe to have the one who should bear the pregnancy more powerful. There is nothing for a man to fear even if he is weak as he does not have the fear of pregnancy.

4. Peer influence:

Peer influence will make women fear the men and the same peer influence will give courage and sense of satisfaction in men to chase women and abuse them.

Solution

Long term solution:

1. Proper education curriculum should be created to ensure peer influence is made even in both the sexes.
2. Ensure that the boys and girls mix with each other from very young age so that people take the opposite sex casually than with awe
3. Kill all the social stereo types
4. Men get all their confidence initially due to group behavior and during that phase observe that the woman fears and runs. The confidence will later allow the men to take on the women all alone as well. The solution will be ideal to curb such thoughts in men, but it is not practical. Hence the most practical solution is to mould women also in such a manner that when in groups men also fear them and run. That will slowly bring the equality of sexes.

Short term solution:

1. Create strict laws to counter the menace
2. Equip women with self defense techniques
3. Promote literacy in women
4. Respect single women as well and do not create social pressure on their marriage
5. Make the women aware of their rights created through law and make the social organisations accessible

Thanks for opening my eyes.

http://www.du.edu/intl/humanrights/violencepkstn.pdf

 

[Emperor Palpatine]

Not another thread to satisfy someones ego.Check your own house before peeping at others..

 

[hillman32]

KODERMA, India — When Nirupama Pathak left this remote mining region for graduate school in New Delhi, she seemed to be leaving the old India for the new. Her parents paid her tuition and did not resist when she wanted to choose her own career. But choosing a husband was another matter.


Honor killings are most common in parts of northern India.
Her family was Brahmin, the highest Hindu caste, and when Ms. Pathak, 22, announced she was secretly engaged to a young man from a caste lower than hers, her family began pressing her to change her mind. They warned of social ostracism and accused her of defiling their religion.

Days after Ms. Pathak returned home in late April, she was found dead in her bedroom. The police have arrested her mother, Sudha Pathak, on suspicion of murder, while the family contends that the death was a suicide.

The postmortem report revealed another unexpected element to the case: Ms. Pathak was pregnant.

“One thing is absolutely clear,” said Prashant Bhushan, a social activist and lawyer now advising Ms. Pathak’s fiancé. “Her family was trying their level best to prevent her from marrying that boy. The pressure was such that either she was driven to suicide or she was killed.”

In India, where the tension between traditional and modern mores reverberates throughout society, Ms. Pathak’s death comes amid an apparent resurgence of so-called honor killings against couples who breach Hindu marriage traditions.

This week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ordered a cabinet-level commission to consider tougher penalties in honor killings.

In June, India’s Supreme Court sent notices to seven Indian states, as well as to the national government, seeking responses about what was being done to address the problem.

The phenomenon of honor killings is most prevalent in some northern states, especially Haryana, where village caste councils, or khap panchayats, often operate as an extralegal morals police force, issuing edicts against couples who marry outside their caste or who marry within the same village — considered a religious violation since villages are often regarded as extended families.

Even as the court system has sought to curb these councils, politicians have hesitated, since the councils often control significant vote blocs in local elections.

New cases of killings or harassment appear in the Indian news media almost every week. Last month, the police arrested three men for the honor killings of a couple in New Delhi who had married outside their castes, as well as the murder of a woman who eloped with a man from another caste.

Two of the suspects are accused of murdering their sisters, and an uncle of the slain couple spoke of their murders as justifiable.

“What is wrong in it?” the uncle, Dharmaveer Nagar, told the Indian news media. “Murder is wrong, but this is socially the best thing that has been done.”

Intercaste marriages are protected under Indian law, yet social attitudes remain largely resistant. In a 2006 survey cited in a United Nations report, 76 percent of respondents deemed the practice unacceptable. An overwhelming majority of Hindu couples continue to marry within their castes, and newspapers are filled with marital advertisements in which parents, seeking to arrange a marriage for a son or daughter, specify caste among lists of desired attributes like profession and educational achievement.

“This is part and parcel of our culture, that you marry into your own caste,” said Dharmendra Pathak, the father of Ms. Pathak, during an interview in his home. “Every society has its own culture. Every society has its own traditions.”

Yet Indian society is also rapidly changing, with a new generation more likely to mix with people from different backgrounds as young people commingle on college campuses or in the workplace.

Ms. Pathak had studied journalism at the Indian Institute of Mass Communications in New Delhi before taking a job at a financial newspaper. At school, she had met Priyabhanshu Ranjan, a top student whose family was from a middle-upper caste, the Kayastha.

“The day I proposed, she said, ‘My family will not accept this. My family is very conservative,’ ” Mr. Ranjan recalled. “I used to try to convince her that once we got married, they would accept it.”

Ms. Pathak deliberated over the proposal for months before accepting in early 2009. Convinced her family would disapprove, she kept her engagement a secret for more than a year, until she learned that her father was interviewing prospective Brahmin grooms in New Delhi to arrange a marriage for her. Her parents were also renovating the family home for a wedding celebration.

Ms. Pathak called her oldest brother, Samarendra, who spent the next week trying to change her mind.