Safety pins are must-haves in 26-year-old Swati Chakladar’s bag.

“When you’re travelling in a crowded bus, ‘safety pins’ really live up to their name,” says the young nursery teacher.

Ajeeta Mhetre, 35, keeps a deo spray in her tote for emergencies.
Ayesha Khan, 22, keeps a small knife in the car’s dashboard when she’s driving home late. “You never know when it will be useful!”

These three women aren’t exceptional. Just normal and cautious, given the times we live in.

Take these five instances of sexual crime in 2002.

* July 29, Delhi: A 27-year-old is dragged out of an autorickshaw into a car and gang raped by four men.
* July 30, Kanpur: A school principal is caught trying to rape an 11-year-old mentally-challenged girl.
* August 13, Mumbai: A drunken man rapes a mentally-challenged, deaf and mute 18-year-old girl in a local train. Seven passengers in the compartment simply look on, scared they’ll be thrown off the train.
* August 19, Delhi: An 85-year-old grandmother is raped by a 19-year-old friend of her grandson.
* November 15, Delhi: A student from Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) is raped at knife-point inside a heritage monument, barely a few metres away from the campus. The crime occurs at 2.30 pm in the afternoon, during peak traffic hours.

These incidents show that irrelevant of age or social class, anybody could be a victim and anyone a criminal. And it can, as we know, happen anywhere.

And these are but the reported incidents. There are several instances of eve teasing, molestation and rape that — due to indifference, shame, fear of social stigma or ignorance — never become complaints.
Walking the streets of some Indian cities is a nightmare even in broad daylight. After dark, it’s almost as if you’re asking for trouble by just being there.

Therein lies the problem.
Why do smart, independent Indian women still have to feel insecure in public places?
Why can’t we simply walk down the road, without worrying about what we’re wearing, how fast we’re walking, who’s following us or how dark it is?

Evil Among Us
An uncontrolled eve teaser could be a potential rapist. “Eve teasing is so common that we even have boys younger than us passing comments,” says Manju, a first year student at MAMC, Delhi. The college has had many unreported cases of molestation and eve teasing, right within the campus, says a senior faculty member. The final straw was the gruesome rape, where the perpetrator was an adolescent.

Commenting on sexual crimes by younger boys, clinical psychologist Vandana Ghura points at repressed sexuality and peer pressure to prove their manhood as prime motivators. “The likelihood is greater among the migrant population from villages, who have fewer social taboos and are thrown into a situation where the social mores are urban and more confusing,” says Kanwaljeet Deol, Joint CP, Vigilance, Delhi.

She views it as a question of change in social values and the pace of life. “It applies even to an educated person coming from a different environment.”

Educated middle-aged men are as guilty, a Delhi police survey reveals. The patriarchal system seems to be gaining deep roots in our society, not just on television. “Films, TV serials, advertisements reinforce a very positive image of the hound and the hounded. The vulnerable fall prey to what they see and hear,” says Tejdeep Kaur Menon, Inspector General of Police, Special Protection Force, Hyderabad.

With years of experience in dealing with women’s issues, Deol sums the situation up thus: “Sexual crimes are a reflection of the physical power of a man over a woman. That is why men who are powerless — mentally, economically — find special attraction in this kind of crimes.”

Photograph: Jitu Savlani Model: Tejaswani Malkani
Photograph: Haider Khan Note: The model has been used for illustrative purposes only

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