If Indian women have anything to cheer about this past week after the news of a public molestation of a girl by a group of men outside a Guwahati nightclub, it is the joint statement by about two dozen women’s groups demanding the resignation of Mamta Sharma as chair of the National Commission for Women (NCW). The provocation is the statement by Ms Sharma, who has hardly distinguished herself in the role she assumed last year, that women needed to be “careful about the way they dress”. She added that incidents like the one in Guwahati were the result of women “blindly aping the West” which was “eroding Indian culture and causing such crimes to happen”. The reason women should feel encouraged is that these protestors, led by the cerebral activist Aruna Roy, come from grassroots organisations that represent women from different walks of life and not just educated working women who may or not be “Westernised”. Their statement that the NCW chief’s comment reflected insensitivity and a poor understanding of women’s issues needed to be made. It indicated, for the first time, a fundamental and realistic recognition of the nature of crimes against women in India and, coming from serious champions of women’s rights — none of whom can be accused of “aping the West” — the message is all the more credible.
That’s because the depressing truth is that Ms Sharma’s statement reflects a widely held view that crimes against women are the result of either “provocative” behaviour or the supposedly culturally disconnected style of dress that they adopt. Thus, former policewoman Kiran Bedi robustly advises women to wear loose clothes so as not to provoke men, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit deplores the “adventurism” of women who drive late at night and her counterpart in West Bengal questions the motives of a mother of two who visits a nightclub. Statements like these — from women who are professionals in their own right — reinforce the kind of views that get reflected in attacks on women in a Mangalore pub from thugs rejoicing in the name of Shri Ram Sene, or Army of Ram. The “pink chaddhi” movement that followed, in which women from all over India sent the Sene chief Pramod Muthalik lingerie by way of protest may have made him and his goons look silly.
But it did little to turn the spotlight on India’s appalling women’s rights record, an issue that will increasingly come to the fore if India’s economy continues to grow. Crimes like the one in Guwahati and earlier this year in Gurgaon attract media coverage because they represent the new face of emerging India’s rising breed of independent women. But throughout India, day in and day out, millions of women, poor and rich, young and old, are oppressed by men in a variety of ways. It is reflected in the declining sex ratios and the poor human rights indicators for women. Few of these women are “blindly aping the West”. Even fewer are dressing in ways that Ms Sharma deems provocative — especially not minor girls, who are subjected to molestation in depressingly large numbers. Most women’s groups understand that this extreme disempowerment is a serious social issue. But Ms Sharma has an odd view of gender issues and male attitudes. She thinks women should consider it a compliment when they are subject to catcalls of “sexy” and has a low opinion of the West, where women enjoy a level of freedom that their Indian sisters can only envy. Perhaps the uniquely misogynist Indian crime of murders over dowry has escaped her notice.
