Divya, my young cousin, is convinced that I prefer the ‘real’ world to the ‘virtual’ one. Gasp. She also imagines that I can provide her with her periodic intellectual fix. Gasp and chuckle. The last couple of weeks have been hot, grimy, dusty, and extremely real. Not very intellectual perhaps (in the sense of Parisian cafes and languid philosophy), but certainly hot, grimy, dusty, and extremely thought-provoking. My team and I have been spending time in Raichur – the north Karnataka district with the dubious distinction of having the lowest Human Development Index (HDI) in Karnataka – looking at how we might better create an environment of safety and protection for its women and children. As with all else in our country, it will take will to change. And the attitude to match. An attitude that will value women and children over cheap labour, easy sex and coerced money making.
Sattva, an online magazine for ‘realising equilibrium in social change’ asked me to write about the Gender Sensitisation and People-friendly Police Project, for their March (‘Women’s Day Special’) issue of the magazine. Having just watched an infuriating episode of ‘We the People’ on NDTV, with Barkha Dutt asking whether we ‘still need feminism’, I was provoked enough to write the following piece:
Policing Change: A Personal Perspective on Violence against Women and Children
A well known TV news channel in English had a Women’s Day special recently, asking the question ‘Do we still need feminism?’ As someone who has worked with the Karnataka police for the past few years on issues of violence against women and children (and is a feminist), I found it startling and disturbing, that so many participants on that talk show – including a senior woman police officer from Punjab – had no sense of the extraordinary moment of crisis we are in, as a country, as a ‘civilisation’, as a community of human beings.
India is missing from its population, over 50 million women and girl children (Census of India, 2001). ‘Missing’ because they are either killed (before birth, immediately after birth, or during their lifetime; one estimate says that 5 women die every day over dowry disputes) or trafficked (for commercial sexual exploitation, labour and other activities). 50 million is 5 crores, i.e. approximately the population of Karnataka; as I tell the police officers who participate in our workshops, there would be unimaginable world-wide horror if a bomb wiped out Karnataka tomorrow, but this ‘bomb’ of gender-based violence has been quietly exploding all over our country, in our homes or in a home near us, and there are very few who hear or see it. There is another ‘bomb’ that also exists: of those who are not killed, but who die many deaths in their every day living.
…What country, what civilisation, what humaneness? What future do we give ourselves, as citizens of the 21st century, if we cannot understand the depths of violence to which we subject so many of our women? Yes, we do live lives of seeming contradiction, and that should not surprise us, or be an excuse for a lack of awareness. We need to acknowledge that for many women – perhaps you and me – the India of today contains a multitude of opportunities and possibilities. But at the same time, we need to acknowledge that for many more women – perhaps the unborn child next door or the abused woman down the road – the India of today does not exist. Because they do not exist. They have been destroyed from the very landscape that is this country.
The Gender Sensitisation and People-friendly Police Project is a joint partnership between the Karnataka State Police and UNICEF, with support from women’s and children’s organisations and committed individuals across the State. Over the past three years, we have trained over 3500 police officers, from over 500 police stations, in the issues of violence facing women and children, and the kind of sensitive, responsive policing that can help protect and support these women and children. It may seem surprising, but many of these police officers – both men and women – are able to analyse for themselves, at the end of the workshops, exactly how we are socialised into individual prejudice and structural discrimination. That it is untrue that ‘women are women’s worst enemies’; after all, a system of patriarchy which privileges male ownership and control over assets, opportunities and values can be abused by and be abusive of, both men and women, though to varying degrees. Would a mother-in-law who has freedom, mobility and self-confidence as a human being – not just as a ‘mother’ or a ‘wife’ – oppress her daughter-in-law? Does every man want to be a police officer? What if he wants to be a Bharatanatyam dancer?
Men and women can also share other values: of equality, of dignity, of respect. At birth, we did not choose our homes, our parents, our language, our caste, our religion, our names… or our bodies. How then, do we end up discriminating on the basis of these very identities as we grow older? The police officers who are willing to listen, who become more conscious of the multiple levels of discrimination and violence that women face, who are willing to change, may never have heard this definition of feminism: ‘the politics that is committed to challenge and change the systemic injustice that women face because of their sex’. Yet they are feminist in their actions, and I applaud them.
Dear Alo,
I didn’t say that about virtual versus real networks, you did! [on my facebook many eons ago]
I work in Customer Relations, where I write letters to idiots everyday. Believe me when I say that this is my intellectual fix!!!
I do remember getting into a debate about feminism with a couple of friends in university.
We feel that feminism’s focus should be on women who really need it, i.e abused women, and combating gender based violence!
And I learnt that abuse is not something that ‘happens to other people’ as well.
Its such a vicious and repetitive cycle, and whenever my best friend used to show up with too much concealer in strange places, we all knew that ‘HE’ was at it again.
It does not help that our culture encourages a woman to be subservient to men…
The idea that 50 million women have been ‘lost’ is mind-boggling to me because that number is at leat ten times the population of Singapore.
I feel that efforts to educate Indians about abuse against women should not be limited to some government sponsored message that pays mere lip service.
I find it as horrifying as you do that the MEDIA hosts a talk show and potrays that ‘women don’t need feminism anymore’. ON WOMEN’S DAY…
And it isn’t limited to the news channels alone. One needs to look no further than popular television channels to see abuse [emotional as well as physical] glorified and glamourised in the endless number of popular tele-serials.
There is much that needs to change before women can be truly ‘liberated’. And the MEDIA is the only entity powerful enough to take on the challenge of changing the attitudes of one billion people.
Sincerely,
Div
Anasuya,
I must commend you again not only for your thoughtful posts but also on the kind of work you do everyday. I admire that you are not jaded enough to resort to cliches about how corrupt the government is and how futile it might be to sensitize police officers. You do seem to have such a sense of faith in the entrenched institutions of the state. While I do believe that the NGO sector can offer powerful correctives to the practices of the state, I myself am less optimistic about the possibility of systemic and structural transformation within state institutions.
The mothers,grandmothers,mothers-in-law of interior Tamil nadu who kill newborn girl-childs within seconds of birth in sometimes the most devilish ways possible ,only watch SunTV OH! not the news!! all that serials which talk of dowry, Family prestige lost, etc etc because of unmarried daughters .
Remind me of a joke heard on the train.” they have found a cure for AIDS patients in Uganda-They shoot them dead!!”The Media does try in TN and people have skated on thin ice on this issue..but the tragedy goes on (NO offence to the state-Just happened to travel a lot through the state-and the news one hears leaves you sleepless for days,I dont expect any difference in other states as well
Wonderful, thought-provoking and strong post. Bravo!
To all those who’ve commented so far: thank you, and apologies for responding so late. Explanations have been half-given in another post, and details will be forthcoming!
@Divya: You’re right, that the media play a significant role in changing our attitudes and perceptions, but change (unlike charity?), should begin at home. With small steps, but big impact. Though sometimes, people find, that it’s easier to begin elsewhere than at home…
@Mike: I am not jaded (yet), but I am sometimes filled with a mixture of great despair and great optimism, not always one or the other. And I do not believe that the answers all lie with NGOs – I think civil society organisations often falter in their own mandates on accountability and integrity, and we need to be ever-watchful of the language of rights turning into the language of righteousness.
I also believe that the state needs always to be challenged – by the very people it claims to represent, and be for. And I do believe that since state institutions have the widest reach – and the greatest responsibility – we should not allow them to abdicate one and lose the other by withdrawing from engagement. Though I recognise that the nature of that engagement (or dis-engagement) depends on the political context and moment.
Finally, some of the most productive engagement is when civil society organisations and the State partner together – as in some of the work we do – with the courage to hold the mirror up to each other, and themselves.
@Raghunath: Yes, it’s not just about one region or the other, it feels as though families and communities across India have very little value for the girl child. And even less for when she grows up.
@N: Well, just adding my support to the voices that need to be heard, that you’ve been talking about in your posts on female genocide. May those voices grow louder and more powerful.
Hi Alo, wonderful post!
I think you have two things working against you:
1)The feeling that “women’s rights” come a distant second to “human rights”.
2) the lack of political will (maybe the EXISTENCE of political ill-will regarding the subject: remember the Shah Bano ruling?)
I’m glad you don’t feel the obstacles are overwhelming, as shown by your insistence of “right here right now!” and “if you (the govt) don’t WE will!
Every bit counts! Rock on!
Hi Tony,
Thanks for writing in! You’re right (sic!) on both counts: part of the long term struggle is certainly to change the perspective to ‘women’s rights *are* human rights’, and yes, sometimes it’s the existence of prejudiced political will rather than the absence of it, that causes the most harm.
Thanks too for the support, both online and offline. 🙂