“Abusing women police”- 22 February 2012
A recent news report tells us that ‘Delhi Police women’s helpline keeps getting lewd, abusive calls’. Is that shocking or humorous?
Is that shameful or amusing? Your reaction to this fact would decide and tell on your attitudes towards women, whether they are modern and egalitarian or sexist in nature.
But it is always a source of satisfaction when great myths get busted. The myth is that ‘women provoke men and therefore men get provoked’ into committing crimes. The myth is that women who dress in revealing clothes get teased and abused for ‘they are asking for it’. The myth is that women behave in a seductive manner and men fall victims to the seduction process. The myth is that women nag and therefore men loose their temper and start beating the women.
The truth is otherwise for all to see if you can see the truth. Men are aggressive by nature and women fall victims to their aggression. Men want to control and dominate and would go to any extent to do just that. Men are aware of their physical prowess and would not hesitate to use their brute force to subjugate women. Men would tease, bully, abuse, use physical violence to keep women ‘in their place’. According to such men, a woman’s place is in the kitchen and under his thumb.
If women police can get abused and receive lewd calls from unknown men then why would such men spare pretty looking, beautiful and intelligent women? Women police wear dull khaki trousers and shirts, tie their hair back and are certainly not provocative either in their appearance, dress or address. They are simple de-glamorized tough women doing their jobs. Then how do we explain the lewd and abusive calls and what should be the provocation one might enquire. Perhaps the male forums that have sprung up against the Domestic Violence Act 2005 would offer some sort of a theory to explain the bad behavior of their brothers. But they seem to be part of the hate campaign against women it seems for they are always quick to justify their innocence and squarely put the blame on women themselves. They continue in their chauvinistic style in spreading another type of myth that women are aggressors and they as men are helpless victims. Yes they are helpless in front of the law – the Domestic Violence Act 2005 that puts stringent measures on the men who inflict mental and physical harassment on women. The measures are appropriate but nothing seems to deter them, not even the laws and the law enforcing agencies.
Women police helpline centre has been created to help women in distress at New Delhi and it is time that such centers are created in all towns and cities and not only in the metropolitan cities. Women are in danger of being assaulted, abused, teased and bullied everywhere, whether they are at home or at public places. A woman could get beaten up any time under silly pretexts and men would justify their actions by blaming the woman.
It is time that all men realized that violence against women is a crime and they can be hauled in court. It is time that men control their aggressive tendencies and learnt better coping strategies in handling conflict. It is time men became aware that they cannot get away with any type of physical aggression against women. It is time they grew up and treated women as equal citizens with a right to live with dignity and peace. It is time women too retaliated with strong measures to male violence and stood up against it. It is time women said ‘No’ to violence and fought for justice.
It is time for men and women to be assertive in their own ways. Men must give up aggression and women must give up submission. That would be the perfect balance.
