यत्र तु नार्यः पूज्यन्ते तत्र देवताः रमन्ते, यत्र तु एताः न पूज्यन्ते तत्र सर्वाः क्रियाः अफलाः (भवन्ति) ।(Where women are worshiped, there lives the Gods. Wherever they are not worshiped, all actions result in failure)~ Manusmriti
Great cultural values, richness and diversity of religions was meant to teach the society to adapt the means of lives to develop an ideal personality, but the question why it got tampered in the meanwhile remains unanswered. Where women are compared to goddesses, on the ground reality women are evidently the most vulnerable section of the society.
What are Gender specific crimes? What is violence against Women specifically?
Violence against women are somewhat typical crimes targetting women of different age, caste, creed, race as an outcome of misogyny, discrimination, Gender domination/superiority and inequality settled unfortunately as a mindset within society.
The crimes are although genderless but what makes a gender more prone to a particular crime? It is sometimes the inclusiveness of possibilities of offences against only/more then often a particular gender being infanticide, rape, sexual assault, insult to modesty, kidnapping, abduction, cruelty by intimate partner or relatives, trafficking, persecution for dowry, dowry deaths, indecency , half of which are in 98% cases reported against Women.
But the gender “Female” as a target provided being the vulnerable section of the society, it’s not always the factual crime that raises concern but the cumulative mentality which shoves an individual as a force ,at time with no sense of realisation of the consequences. Facts of the various cases make it evident how the outlook towards the oppression is not even considered as one, rather they’re named as duties of women towards oppressors to obey and responsibilities to be fulfilled as a Mother, daughter ,wife, sister and so on.
The records show how number of crimes committed against women in India keep rising every year with more than half of the cases which still go uncurtailed. “In 2012, the crimes against women in India accounted for 6.4%, which meant in an average within three minutes, a woman fell victim to violence” ,with a fatal rise of 7.3% recorded by the year 2019″ According to the annual National Crime Record Bureau’s “Crime in India” 2019
The several forms of crimes with women as a target result in lifelong trauma or at times death of Individuals. Few of them (offences) being;
DOWRY DEATHS
Whereas, going by the tradition, the bride’s family rewards the groom with a considerable sum of money and other material resources, which supposedly was meant to help the bride settle in the new household, but turned out to be a great mishap. Hailing to rural areas, economically backward background, or when anyhow the bride or her family is unable to meet the groom’s demands for the dowry money, the oppression for the same result in Dowry death or abuse. In usual cases, often, the bride is victimized to verbal and physical abuse of the groom and his family. Where, The women are beaten, abused, and regularly molested for her family’s incapability to fulfill the dowry and to pressurise for the same. Unfortunately, the cases of dowry deaths are not only seen in the rural parts of India but the concept continue to breathe in the well developed educated urban background as well forming an accountable part of the crimes committed against women.
RAPE
As per records, Rapes and nonconsensual sexual activities also form a large portion of the violence committed against Indian women, which is typically the sexual intercourse carried forcefully on the woman without her consent.
10.9% of the crimes in the year 2016 out of the rest committed against women were for rape. It indeed is true that women are timely becoming more aware and open about the topic of rape with discussions and confidence to push hesitation and speak up for themselves, with breaking the norms they are opening up about their own stories of sexual assault for the strong consideration of the matter. However, the continuous spike in numbers of cases in the countries still keep rising, with in alot of cases unfortunately the perpetrators often going unpunished.
MARITAL RAPE
Marital rape is yet another prominent example of violence against women. Marital rape is the nonconsensual sexual intercourse carried on between a married couple where husbands often force themselves upon their wives without their consent which leads to abuse and physical molestation committed upon the female body. Unfortunately, the offence is not even legally recognised in alot of countries including India.
TRAFFICKING AND SEXUAL SLAVERY
Two of the other offences being, Women and female child trafficking and forced prostitution(sexual slavery) although two parallel but evidently intersecting offences, coerced by third party for monetary gain out of a female body.
MISCELLANEOUS
With other forms of violence committed against Indian women bring inclusive of domestic abuse, child marriage, abduction, physical slavery, trafficking etc.
CONCLUSION
The glimpse of patriarchal ideology becomes transparent with the evidence of reported cases where nine out of every ten cases committed against women being perpetrated by Men which proves how the origin of crimes against women stems from the deep-rooted outlook biased of gender. The physical and social status superiority belief towards the women leads them to force themselves on their female counterparts and inflict pain on the Individual female with impact over the community as whole to become vulnerable lastly.
As per the National Crime Records Bureau, “12.7% of the female population in West Bengal reported having been victims of violence, and 11.5% of the same in the state of Andhra Pradesh with 7.3% of nationally increase“. The topic of violence against Indian women is of great concern with loops that are created if not immediately addressed , holding the potential to worsen the situation.
With the concept of blame shift over the victims themselves, the situations on the one hand go out of control at times where women are judged based on their appearances and choice of actions, while on the other hand continuous development of resources as Legal cells, NGOs, workforces, enactments also tend to strengthen the confidence for the women to speak up for themselves with the aforesaid means of help.
Aishwarya Says:
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