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I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God's creation, woman, the object of our lust.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948
October 2 is observed by the United Nations as the International Day of Non-Violence.
I guess an apology is in order. After two highly educative weeks in Japan, I spent a couple more weeks tending to a family emergency. Thank you all for your patience. I am back with some festive and some disturbing news from India. :)
In my last post about Indian women blogging for social change, I introduced Jasmeen Patheja's Blank Noise, and I promised to shout out another of my heroes. But a recent survey of women in India's capital city, New Delhi, underscores the importance of the kind of social dialogue that Blank Noise has been striving to make happen. So New Delhi moved up my blog posts' list.
In a study conducted by the National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science about how secure women were in New Delhi, half the respondents said they felt most unsafe in public buses. Over 80 percent of women in market places said they felt insecure. Worse, over 70 percent college-going women said they felt unsafe on their campuses. Shopping malls were not far behind, with 60 percent of female shoppers saying they felt insecure.
These surveys came as no surprise to me. Delhi is infamous for being the crime capital of the country. Some refer to it as the "rape capital". Statistics compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau show the capital to be the most unsafe metropolitan for women, with crime rate against women being the highest in the country, nearly twice the national average.
I lived in New Delhi for six years, and sadly, the figures ring true. For women who walk the streets, depend on public transportation, and shop at crowded markets and malls, traveling unchaperoned and at all hours without fearing that someone will invade their space, is like a dream.
I recall my shock the first time I encountered some serious physical manhandling on a public bus in the city. My colleague, a Delhiite, smiled widely and said : “A Delhi girl's sex education begins on the public bus”.
Doing simple things like driving at night can be worrisome. I recall a female colleague once planning to plead with the cops that she be allowed to retain the tint in her car windows (the Delhi Police had once banned the use of color tints on car windows in an effort in check crime. The ban was later lifted, reports say.) since she was a reporter and drove at night, and she didn't want to be spotted driving alone.
I also figured that contrary to explanations for men behaving badly, what you wear and how you carry yourself didn't necessarily determine how you will be treated in public. No matter how conservatively you dress and how aloof you look, there seems to be no reason why you shouldn't be considered fair game.
Unfortunately, visitors are not spared this inhospitality either. Nisha, who I understand is traveling across India with Ian, writes of her New Delhi experience at Ian and Nisha's Asian Adventure:
There are also many articles, mainly by women, about how Delhi generally unsafe for women. When a woman defended herself with karate against two would-be-assailants on a crowded street (while hundreds stood around and watched while she called for help), it made the paper. Thankfully, I have only been the victim of vulgar looks from men, mainly in Delhi. These filthy, vile creatures lurk around the tourist areas and won't hesitate to crane their necks, point, and gawk at westerners, even modestly dressed ones. I never experienced such things when I lived in Calcutta for a month or anywhere else in India for that matter. I can't wait to be out of Delhi for good.”
In an article on BootsnAll.com, Debbie Sealey warns Western women visiting New Delhi:
For Western woman about to embark on the New Delhi experience, my advice is to take clothing that is modest - tops with sleeves and trousers or skirts that don't show your ankles. Wear a scarf at all times to ward off unwanted attention towards your breasts. This
