Let’s concentrate on teaching our boys how to respect women

Let’s concentrate on teaching our boys how to respect women

The safety is not one time issue and I am talking mainly of the safety of women. The Hyderabad rape and murder, followed by a police encounter, rape and burning to death of a young girl in Unnao, shooting and injuring an exhausted female dancer in a wedding party may soon lose the public attention. However, all this creates an everlasting feeling of fear and apprehensions among the women and their families. Is there a family in India that does not have a female member? All of us go through this palpable fear and have anxious families waiting at bus stops, railway stations and airports. 

We refuse our girls permission to commute or travel after 8 pm in summers and after 6 pm during winters. We may forget specific incidents but the whole country is in a grip of fear psychosis about the safety of women. We do not need a psychiatrist to tell us how unhealthy it is. Nor do we need the World Bank to tell us that our growth rate will boost by 1.5% to 9% if women join the workforce in bigger numbers. India ranks 120 among 131 countries in female labour force participation rate and it is the atmosphere of extreme insecurity that is holding women back. 

The phobia about women’s safety gripped me recently and I wanted to share it. On December 6, I landed at Delhi International Airport from Pune and at about 7 pm I was standing in line for booking a cab from booths being operated by Delhi traffic police. As I looked around, I saw two foreign girls standing in the line parallel to mine. Suddenly, I saw that the booth attendant got up and went to the backside of the booth and those girls were following him. Next, I found the same girls surrounded by about 7-8 men. Now, this is what Hyderabad and Unnao cases have done to me. I left my queue to find out what was happening. The bulky men paid no attention to me but the girls came forward and told that they were looking for a cab for Agra that they had booked online from Nepal. They were journalism students from Australia and were in India after spending a fortnight in Nepal. Thinking that the police traffic booth may help, they had approached it. I saw no reason why the booth operator left his desk and went to the backside, especially when around 10 passengers standing in a queue waiting for him. Further, I saw no reason for 7-8 cab drivers to surround them so I decided to help the girls, but the men won’t let me talk to them further. Generally, I do not introduce myself but for once I thought it fit to do so. Not entirely believing that I could be a retired officer of the Indian Police Service, the men nevertheless retreated grudgingly. One hefty guy sarcastically announced that since I was from IPS, I was better equipped than them.

Keeping my calm, I traced the helpline number of the web portal from which the girls had booked their cab for Agra. The operator of the cab service, after checking the details informed that the cab was waiting for them in the parking. I located the cab driver and cautioned him about their safe travel to the Agra hotel. The girls left thanking me profusely. Around midnight, the cab driver sent me a message that the girls had reached the hotel safely. 

The whole episode has left me wondering if I was overreacting and if the recent events were playing too much in my mind. Whether the cab drivers and the Delhi traffic booth guy were, in fact, trying to help the girls. I can understand the stress levels of families whose girls are out, working in evening or night shifts. I am also thinking of various steps that we all can take besides equipping our girls in self-defence. The first of course is to teach our boys to respect the girls. It starts with families and goes on to schools and colleges. The role of parents and teachers is most crucial as the early childhood value system build the foundation of a person.
 
As for governance, the government has already mandated that trial in offences against women should be completed in 21 days. For this, Centre and states must put in more financial resources for recruiting judicial officers and staff for fast track courts. We need to fill about 20% existing vacancies in all state police forces. We also need to fill the 33% quota of women in judiciary. Their very presence acts as a confident measure for women and deters men with ill intentions. We must increase the number of women judges and prosecutors too. Now, the gender-friendly fast track courts will complete the trial of cases in 21 days. However, the High Courts and apex court too should finish the process of appeals in the same fast track mode. This will build public faith in law enforcement and in the criminal justice system. As of today, they welcome police encounters as the preferred mode of getting justice without realising how dangerous it is.

More finance to police, prosecution, forensic laboratories and judiciary, their recruitment and regular training are essential. This will help us secure a higher conviction rate. With this, the girls will be free of fear and above all, they will be happy and so would be our families. The general well being of the country will improve as would our GDP with more women joining the workforce.

So dear readers, first let’s concentrate on bringing up our boys to respect women. Only then, it is in our interest to follow up with state and Central govts as they tend to ignore the criminal justice system. I know it, having served here for 36 years. Let’s be together and consistent in our fight for a safe and secure environment for women. It is a long journey involving cultural changes but we have to start someday. Let that day be today. 

(The author is a retired IPS officer who was Director-General of Police in Maharashtra) 

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