Controlling eve-teasing

EVE-TEASING IS a rampant social evil. It is all pervasive — beaches, roads, cinema halls, buses and sadly even in educational institutions. When eve-teasing persists even inside educational institutions, one can obviously infer that even the educated youth don’t necessarily desist from indulging in this uncouth behavior. The issue always surfaces when something prominent happens, like for instance when a Chennai college girl was killed some years ago. Knee-jerk reactions such as police patrols, `white’ brigade actions, etc., continue for a short time. Public memory happens to be short and soon things return to the usual anarchy and we accept the fact that `nothing much can be done.’

Glorification in movies:

Where does eve-teasing have its roots? Is this seen in every country? An interesting fact needs to be mentioned here. If one types `eve-teasing’ in any internet search engine, you would be surprised that page after page of results are almost entirely Indian web pages. Maybe, other countries refer to this more subtly under `sexual harassment,’ but a cursory survey among frequent travelers to other countries confirms that `eve-teasing’ in its form of hooting-ogling-loud commenting-whistling, etc., does tend to be more prevalent in India. Not something to be proud about. Eve-teasing is a crude way of garnering female attention. It is unnecessarily glorified by movies, although movie makers may argue that it is a classical `chicken and egg’ situation. One must admit that eve-teasing can most certainly be perpetuated easily by its continued glorification in movies.
Eve-teasing is not a victimless crime as it appears on paper. It has resulted in deaths, and when it goes unchecked could lead to public humiliation of women even in broad daylight. The rape of a medical student in Delhi in the recent past shocked the whole nation. Eve-teasing also portrays a bad image of the country among tourists. The immeasurable damage to a woman’s self-esteem and the subsequent avoidance of public places by single women could hardly take us on the way to achieving gender equality.
Eve-teasing is a typical social crime, where the perpetrators and victims are ordinary people. There is no easy way of rounding up everyone concerned and settling the issue. Schools and colleges could easily discipline students for such activities on campus, but this only induces them to indulge in such acts outside campus. Police prosecution can also never be severe because of the reluctance of victims to depose in court. A behavioral change is the only lasting solution to this problem. This requires an extensive public education aimed at every section of society at large.