Written in February.
In recent years, the rise of sexual violence and harassment of women has been the focus of feminist politics in India. With an increasing number of cases of sexual violence against women and the rise of the #MeToo movement’s extensive media coverage, violence is increasingly being perceived as a touchstone for recognition of an issue as a “women’s issue”. Professor Mary E. John, a researcher in women’s development studies and feminist issues, presented a talk on the subject in association with the BITS Pilani Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), with the hope of sensitising students to matters of sexual violence and gender equality. The event started with a performance of the song “O Ri Chiraiya” by two students, Samarth and Sahu, followed by Professor John’s talk.
Starting her speech with the first wave of widespread feminist movements in the 1980s which were triggered by the custodial rape of a 15-year-old girl in what would later be known as the “Mathura case”, Professor Mary John gave a brief history of the women’s movement in India and the shocking discoveries and observations made by women’s groups at that time. With due seriousness, she explained the details and backlash of the infamous case that had started an investigation into cases of violence against women that had previously been ignored. Through these investigations, women’s groups at that time discovered that the country’s rape laws in the Indian Penal Code had not been amended or even reviewed since their inception by the British in 1861. This had resulted in extremely outdated laws regarding sexual violence against both women and men.
She went on to describe the next major wave of feminist movements, this time provoked by the fatal gangrape of a young woman in a bus on December 16th 2012. This case brought people to the streets in a way that had never been seen before with tens of thousands of people gathering to demand justice all over India and internationally. It was this particular case, perhaps because of the brutality of the crime or the considerable media coverage, that reignited women’s movements in India and earned Delhi the title of the “Rape Capital of the World”. Professor John explained that most people reacted to the rise of sexual violence by applying the “lock-up” method to protect “their girls” which involved limiting their interaction with the outside world. She went on to present troubling statistics collected from the National Crime Record which showed that in nearly 98% of rape cases the perpetrators were well-known to the victim, with the incidents often being cases of incest. This exposed the inherent flaws in one’s approach to the deterrence of sexual violence in this country. It also proved typical instances of sexual violence to be far more complex than the stranger rapes generally covered by the media.
Professor John emphasised that the first step towards ensuring the security of women is to re-evaluate how one views danger and sexual safety. She focused on shifting one’s concern from restricting the freedom of women to sensitising and educating men on matters of consent and what is considered to be sexual violence. She showed that the oppression of women under the guise of concern for safety is oriented towards victim-blaming and fails to prevent rape cases. On the contrary, it discourages women from reporting sexual violence for fear of jeopardising their freedom and reputation. She later addressed the controversial topic of invoking capital punishment for those perpetrating sexual violence. Holding a strong opposition to the death penalty, she claimed that such punishment will only aggravate the situation.
In the second part of her talk, Professor John explored women’s issues in the social fabric beyond violence against women, saying that in the present day the presence of a coercive force is what renders feminist issues to be recognised as such. Other issues, such as inequality in the workplace and oppression by society, are largely ignored by both the media and public as well as feminist organisations. Regarding women’s presence in schools and higher education, she presented some hopeful statistics. The number of young men and women in Indian colleges is nearly equal in the nationwide average. However, despite this, one can observe an anomalous disparity in access to higher education, with an extremely low proportion of women eventually achieving gainful employment. With less than 15% of women gainfully employed, India has one of the world’s lowest Female Work Participation Rates. Studies have shown that even out of those employed, the highest proportion of women are from a rural background working in fields rather than offices. In urban settings, the number of women in offices has been consistently decreasing even during periods of high economic growth. She went on to expose the double standard in the definition of success in Indian society, saying, ‘[Parents] want their sons settled, which for them means having a good job and they also want their daughters settled, which for them means marriage.’ She encouraged people to question and scrutinize these skewed values and numbers as much as they question violence.
With remarkable ingenuousness, Professor John forced the audience to contemplate how they view sexual violence in society. Her talk was very well received by the audience. Ending with a brief question and answer session, she encouraged the audience to educate themselves on India’s current policies regarding sexual violence and to question the current approach to ensuring the safety and security of women.