Eve teasing is the making of unwanted sexual remarks or advances by a male to a female in public place. It is a rampant social evil that persists everywhere, even in educational institutions. Eve teasing is an evil which denies a woman the right to live in dignity. Eve teasing is prevalent in India .Search “eve teasing” in any of the search engines and you will find hundreds of eve teasing incidents in India.
Eve teasing, if unchecked could lead to public humiliation of women in broad day light. Eve teasing has grown from hooting, ogling and loud commenting to sexual assault, rapes and gang rapes.
The recent incident of a gang rape of a girl in Delhi sent waves of anger throughout the country. Whole India spontaneously came to streets to condemn this heinous crime, demanding justice for the Delhi girl. People demanded justice for the girl who lost her life to the indecent crime. Government promised to pass certain laws that will minimize eve teasing.
But soon after the Delhi incident shook the nation, another incident of eve teasing took place when a 21 year old girl from Jammu was molested. The eve teasers went on prowl further. This month a 23 year old girl’s face was mutilated when she was attacked by acid on her face by a local shop keeper here in Kashmir. Reports clarified that the girl was getting married and this local shopkeeper was assaulting her to marry him. When he heard about her marriage with someone else he attacked her with acid.
It is unnecessarily glorified in movies (although the film makers will deny the claim in the very first place) but one must admit that eve teasing can most certainly be perpetuated by its continued glorification in Indian cinema.
We are yet to recover from the trauma of Tabinda’s murder case. What happened afterwards? A bunch of crooks were arrested and released within days. Every now and then we find our daughters, sisters being teased especially in buses and outside tuition centers. Unnecessary pushing in buses, needless gazing and staring have become order of the day. It puts females in extremely embarrassing situations.
Every action is performed with some intention. The intention behind eve teasing is ‘to catch girl’s eye and to gain attention in some way’. Gender segregation and a ‘boys will be boys’ attitude furthers eve teasing.
Women folk must understand that the more they remain silent, the more they provide the room to the eve teasers. They should raise the voice against the eve teasers whenever needed.
Good parenting is the most important thing that will help to put an end to this nuisance. Parents must teach basic moral values to their sons rather than stopping women from going out. They should tell their sons to behave well.
As it has been said “charity begins at home”, when a father respects his wife and other women, it will be learnt by the ward. Tucking this issue under the carpet is not a solution. A civilized society cannot afford to ignore such a nuisance. Eve teasing deserves to be tackled and deserves attention of each and every person in the society. Eve teasing should be tackled at every level, ranging from seminars in schools and colleges, to awareness camps in public. Government should make sure that the laws with this regard are followed in letter and spirit. And government should keep on devising new laws that could avoid women from being harassed and assaulted. Men and boys need to show respect to the female folk. Rather than being part of the menace, they should guard the chastity of their mothers, sisters and daughters.
WOMEN ARE TO BE RESPECTED; NOT TO BE TEASED.
Written By:
Abid Hussain Rah
Computer Science Engineering Student
SSM College of Engineering & Technology
