Verbal rape
A woman is walking down the street. Suddenly from behind her she hears a nasty comment. Something obscene. Some vulgar notices. Pursing of the lips. That weird kissing sound. And immediately one’s insides churn. I feel angry. Helpless. Disgusted. Hopeless. I daren’t even say “shut up” in case it creates an incident.
I wonder, maybe, it’s not directed towards me, even though I know deep down it is. I don’t say anything just in case it is followed by even filthier comments, or some action. And besides I’m alone. Maybe if I don’t say anything none will notice. So feeling awful within me, feeling annoyed, angry, dirty, I walk ahead.
A young university teacher says “I don’t dare come back home after 6 pm. Every time I leave the house in the morning or in the evening, there are these groups of guys; and in this area there are many such groups since there is a liquor den just outside which attracts all men with nothing better to do. They continually pass obscene comments about me, brush against me, and tease me. It is so disgusting that I’ve just stopped meeting anyone in the evenings. The result is that I’m totally isolated; its work all day; and no social life in the evenings”.
This in the bustle and crowds of the Mahim suburbs of Bombay. Aruna , the teacher explains why her problem is abnormal. “Every woman experiences these forms of oppression on the streets. But I think that this is a conscious attempt to use this form of teasing to make my life so uncomfortable that I leave my flat and move from this area. I live with my old parents who can barely walk, and we are a lone family of one community living in a tenement where all the other families come from another community. They have been trying to make our life uncomfortable so that we will shift. They know that there is no male around the house, so they feel that eventually I will leave”.
But Aruna is determined to fight. She went to the local police and told them of her problems. At first the police were helpful. They talked sympathetically and for a short time the goondas were not seen in their haunts and going out was easier for her. But after sometime, the attack on her---“verbal rape” , as she calls them---became even louder, more difficult to suffer. So back she went to the police station. But this time the reception was quite different.
It is the citizens right to stand wherever he wants, the police told her. “How can we do anything about it? Besides how do you know the comments are being made about you? They are probably just talking aloud. Are you sure you aren’t imagining things?”
Fundamental right?!
This implies that it is the fundamental right of men to stand in a public place making vulgar comments on women. Making the woman’s life so difficult so that she loses her own fundamental right to walk out on the streets. Apparently the rights of women are less important for society. It’s obvious which side the police are on. It’s almost as if a woman walks on the street she should expect and bear--- whatever insults she is subjected to.
The teacher is keen to go to court. Under the Indian penal code, (section 354) assault or criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty is punishable with affine or imprisonment. Also, under section 509, a word, gesture or act intended insult the modesty of a woman is liable for a fine or one year maximum imprisonment.
But given the attitudes of the police and the law courts, these offences are impossible to prove. If there’s a way, there is a will of course. If the police were really keen on checking eve teasing they could in the basis of a strong complaint have assigned plain clothes men to watch the behavior of the men complained against. Instead they cast aspirations on the woman almost tell her that there must have been something wrong with her for reacting to such “normal male citizen behavior”.
In these circumstances women are left totally alone. “I thought that the neighboring ladies would help me, but they stand on their balconies, laugh and make fun,” one victim complains. “The insult and humiliation of it! Haven’t they experienced this type of taunting? Don’t they feel angry that they have to face such a situation when they are on the streets? ”
July, 9th 1980.
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