Vipanchi

These so-called 'protectors of culture' never bother, nor even notice that wearing a pant and shirt was never "our tradition". When confronted, they say, its about convenience, no question of convenience/choice to the 'other gender' though! It is time again to debate on the 'safety of women' in our society. With  # METOO campaign kicking off in India, an opportunity to revamp our workspaces and the social sphere has come. An overhaul of how we perceive gender is the need of the hour. Not so long ago, it was okay to tease someone as being a 'Gay', it was okay to gossip about the perceived gay/lesbian couple in our classrooms/ workspaces. It was okay to taunt a boy to 'wear bangles' if he is not very bold or active. A girl is called 'boyish' if she is bold. We have mastered the art of assigning gender roles. Our social spaces continuously assign, manipulate gender roles in our minds so much so that we stopped noticing someth...

Every morning as I open the newspaper there is at least an article on a girl, molested in one or the other part of India. sometimes in a city, some other in a village. Sometimes an infant, sometimes a septuagenarian. No state is an exception, some states lead anyway. Temples and schools, houses and workplaces all are same for the 2nd gender! This is a very pathetic state for us as a society. Agreement of this is unequivocal. Then, why are we as a society unable to solve the problem? This is the question I try to answer here. I will address this by dissecting the issue, part by part. Stringent punishment - a deterrent: Many people have this view,  " punish the rapist cruelly so that boys will fear to rape a girl".   Most of them rally on the streets to get this done. They are those who really empathize with the victim. But as research shows, punishment is not a deterrent to crime. However, the lack of punishment is more adverse. So the criminal justice sy...