Recently in Mumbai, two men were sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexual harassment and eve teasing of a minor girl under the POSCO act. While the verdict is appreciated but the problem remains the same and that is women are not safe. Eve’s teasing kept increasing with time from whistles, stares, bad touch, and molestation to social media trolling. Despite having tough laws the number of cases is increasing. It’s objectifying a woman by passing inappropriate comments, touching them, and bullying them in public. In India, almost 90% of women face some form of eve teasing in public places. In this, we will find the facts, negative aspects, laws, and solutions and go beyond the whistle and stares.
Stats of Eve Teasing in India
- As per the NCRB report in 2022 – 4.45,256, it registered crime cases against women in India. It was a decrease of 4.0% from (4,28,278) in 2018. The majority of cases under crime against women under IPC were registered under ‘Cruelty by Husband or His Relatives’ (31.4%) followed by ‘Kidnapping & Abduction of Women’ (19.2%),‘Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty’ (18.7%), and ‘Rape’ (7.1%). The crime rate registered per lakh women population was 66.4 in 2022 in comparison with 64.5 in 2021
- Only 1 in 10000 females report the eve teasing occurrence to the police which is the main reason why this crime is increasing. In 2022, 10116 cases were registered for stalking women.
- 95%+ women think that eve teasing has affected their mental health and personal, professional, and academic development.
- Uttar Pradesh has registered the most number of cases against women in India followed by West Bengal and Rajasthan.
- Almost 65% of female employees witness inappropriate stares from their colleagues.
- The report stated that most of the eve-teasing cases happened on public transportation.
- India ranked 128 among the 177 countries by the Women Peace and Security Index in 2023 for women’s safety.
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Negative Aspects of Eve Teasing
- First and foremost Eve teasing at any level is a direct violation of women’s right to privacy, dignity, and freedom to movement.
- An increase in the number of crimes against women will normalize eve-teasing and sexual harassment in society. We are currently witnessing that women are objectified in movies, songs, and advertisements.
- If a women try to file a complaint or speak against it the eve teasers physically assault that woman.
- In many cases, especially in villages when a girl tries to speak to her family about this they immediately stop her education. Sometimes women themselves stop going to offices due to this.
- Eve teasing affects the mental health of girls badly and they feel depressed. In Uttarakhand, a 14-year-old boy filmed an inappropriate video of his classmate and viral it. Later on, when that girl felt teased by others in school she committed suicide.
- As a country, it portrays a bad image of our people in the world they think of us as perverts.
- Women are stopped from travelling and attending events, locked in homes, and their freedom snatched from them.
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Cause of Eve Teasing in India
- There are laws in India against eve-teasing but the implementation of these laws is not up to the mark. In many cases the verdict is pending for many years and as we know justice delayed is justice denied.
- 1 in 10000 girls report the case which gives confidence to eve-teasers to do this openly.
- In many cases, police do not support the complain filer which leads to an increase in the number of cases.
- The family instead of supporting the girl in these cases prohibited the girl from going outside of the home.
- Many videos are on the in internet which celebrities objectify women proudly which works as a justification for eve teasers.
- Lack of awareness at the grassroots level on how should one treat women.
- There is hardly any information released by the government on eve-teasing which makes the issue ignored by people.
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Laws and Steps Taken by Government Against It
| Section | Law Detail | Punishment |
|---|---|---|
| Section 294 | Deals with inappropriate acts and songs in public places | Imprisonment for 3 Months or a fine or both |
| Section 354 | Deals with situations where eve teasing involves physical harassment | Imprisonment for 5 years or a fine or both |
| Section 509 | Deals with situations where eve teasing involves stalking, obscene gestures, verbal abuse | Imprisonment for 1 year or a fine or both |
| Section 354A | Deals with physical contact, group bullying, showing porn to women against their permission, sexual remark, demanding a sexual favour | Imprisonment for 3 years or a fine or both |
- In many cities, Anti-Romeo Squad is operating which deals with the eve teasing with women in public places.
- The government has set up special courts for quick trials of crimes against women.
- Indian government releases a National women’s helpline number 181 for a report of eve teasing easily. Also, made mandatory for all public transportation to have this number.
- Children at the school level are given education about good touch and bad touch and how they need to treat someone.
- It is mandatory for govt, female employees to take self-defence classes provided by the government for free.
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Solutions of this Eve Teasing
Women need to understand keeping quiet will only increase the teaing so they have to report it to parents, partners, friends, or police. We need to work on many things for a complete solution to this problem. Some say lack of education causes this no in many cases well-educated people do this stuff. Education is not the solution because the problem is mindset. People need to stop objectifying women for gains.
Instead of stopping a girl from studying, her family needs to support her and give back to Eve teasers. The government needs to make laws smooth, and culprits should be punished as early as women. As a society, we need to acknowledge these things and do our part against eve-teasing. If someone we know is doing something like this we need to make sure either they apologize and never do this again or they should be punished accordingly.
References
- https://ncrb.gov.in/uploads/nationalcrimerecordsbureau/custom/1701607577CrimeinIndia2022Book1.pdf
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_294_of_the_Indian_Penal_Code
- https://www.indiacode.nic.in/show-data?actid=AC_CEN_5_23_00037_186045_1523266765688&orderno=394
- https://www.indiacode.nic.in/show-data?actid=AC_CEN_5_23_00037_186045_1523266765688&orderno=573
