When most of the nation rejoices the "victory" of the Nirbhaya case, I, an ordinary Indian girl, ponder upon whether I would ever be able to witness a day when I would walk out of my house, without the slightest hint of fear of being mistreated; mistreated 'cause I am a female. That raises a much needed question, "what is understood by the word mistreatment"?
Having been living in this particular city since the past six years and in the society since twenty-four years, I keep experiencing mistreatment in the form of eve-teasing. And like any other girl coming from a small town (or not) who lives away from home, I keep getting my share of family's and friends' advice on to dos and not to dos. Say, I follow it all..do everything as told..take every precaution I am expected to; and I should call myself fortunate that it's all paying off... Or is it really?
We are cautioned about the ghastly mishaps which happen around us, that have been "getting into notice lately and hence, multiplying" at a manifold pace, that we do not even care to pay heed to its roots. A cheesy comment while we are walking on the road is ignored rather casually, forget about reacting to the fact that we are being stared at. We all feel that these are such usual, harmless happenings that neither do we have the time, nor the energy or will, to confront a man who can't stop looking at a female. We easily ignore it or murmur a few abuses and let go; till the time he is really intimidating.. In that case, we say something in return, getting to hear a cheesier comment in reply and ultimately, walking off, with a feeling of remorse as to why did we think we could shut a man like that up or shed him some sense.
I would be a complete fool if I'd expect people to come down to the streets because some guy could not stop himself from passing a comment to a girl who was looking beautiful dressed in a salwar-suit, which by the way, covered her up completely, leaving her much provoking face and arms exposed, unfortunately..! I completely understand that. Common behaviour clearly shows commenting and being stared at are harmless. It's "just" a few moments' business, but if you react to it, it might become too big to handle. So, we avoid reacting to a situation like this, rather than giving it off to that man there and then or reporting about him immediately (of course, we are aware that reporting would be a vain attempt). So, we don't. Who would and more importantly, why would anyone take it seriously? It's not causing any physical harm after all. But, what about that feeling of discomfort that we go through during those "few seconds" every time an unwanted man keeps looking at us, although without uttering a single word, but a look that is offensive, for starters? And what about the feeling of humiliation that is filled within us every time we have to stoop several levels down to confront a man who passes a comment on us, which ultimately goes futile. WHY? Why should we tolerate any of it..every single day and not just once, irrespective of what we wear?
Is it just the appalling acts like rape, acid attacks, sexual assaults, molestation, stalking etc. which "qualify" as mistreatment? Breaching into someone's personal space by doing "nothing", but just a very simple, absolutely common thing like staring or, in other words, "checking a girl out", actually amounts to nothing? Have you ever wondered that this "nothing" could be the beginning of it all?
Think about it.
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