By: Muzaffar Mir
EVE-TEASING is a rampant social evil. It is all pervasive — beaches, roads, cinema halls, buses and sadly even in educational institutions. When eve-teasing persists even inside educational institutions, one can obviously infer that even the educated youth don't necessarily desist from indulging in this uncouth behaviour.time. Public memory happens to be short and soon things return to the usual anarchy and we accept the fact that `nothing much can be done'.
Eve-teasing is not a victim less crime as it appears on paper. It has resulted in deaths, and when it goes unchecked could lead to public humiliation of women even in broad daylight. The rape of a medical student in Delhi in the recent past shocked the whole nation. Eve-teasing also portrays a bad image of the country among tourists.The immeasurable damage to a woman's self-esteem and the subsequent avoidance of public places by single women could hardly take us on the way to achieving gender equality.
Eve-teasing is a typical social crime, where the perpetrators and victims are ordinary people. There is no easy way of rounding up everyone concerned and settling the issue. Schools and colleges could easily discipline students for such activities on campus, but this only induces them to indulge in such acts outside campus. Police prosecution can also never be severe because of the reluctance of victims to depose in court. A behavioral change is the only lasting solution to this problem. This requires an extensive public education
aimed at every section of society at large.
Every action is performed with an intention. The intention behind eve-teasing is: to catch a girl's eye and to arouse attention in some way;and more importantly this harassment is an early manifestation of patriarchal masculinity. Gender segregation and a `boys will be boys' attitude furthers this behavior. Innumerable movies show that eve-teasing eventually `wins' a girl's attention. Changing this behavior is easier said than done. However, if things are left alone, they could hardly get better. Active solutions should be sought. For starters, a massive sustained campaign by women's organisations highlighting this evil must be initiated. Students in colleges must specifically be counselled. Debates on this issue must be organised in colleges, TV shows, etc., with responsible moderators — who would listen and reason an argument instead of sounding outright biased.
Every parent should talk to his son about this. Cinema is a powerful medium to showcase this issue. The majority of the eve-teasing crowds are undoubtedly movie junkies. Maybe when a movie addresses the fear,
hurt and humiliation a girl experiences will people think about this `other side' of eve-teasing.
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