India Most Unsafe Country for Women Due to High Risk of Sexual Violence: 7 Reasons Why Women in India Are a Victim of Sexual Violence

Do you feel safe stepping out at 10 in the night all alone? If you are a woman in India, your answer most likely is a NO. Wonder why? Well, there are endless number of reasons one can cite for it. In the 2018 Thomson Reuters Foundation survey of 550 experts relating to women issues, India is first in the list of the most dangerous nations for sexual violence against women. Seven years ago in the same survey, India was on the fourth spot. With the strides that we are making on all the fronts, India should be moving towards becoming a safer country. Instead we are deteriorating and becoming worse than ever.

But why are women so unsafe in the country? From low conviction rates to our cultural set-up, there are various possible reasons for it. We look at seven most important causes why women are unsafe in India.

1. Lack of Sex Education

Even in 2018, India lags behind on imparting proper sex education in schools. In a society where the word sex itself is a taboo, it's no surprise why people refrain from openly discussing it. The truth is that sex education is crucial to enable an individual make responsible choices about their sexual and social relationships. The lack of it often leads men to a poor understanding of sex. They may be motivated to explore their sexuality in violent ways. Their frustration builds up often leading them to indulge in non-consensual acts of sex, resulting to sexual abuse.

2. Unfamiliarity with Consent

Due to the lack of proper sex education individuals are also deprived of the idea and concept of consent. Any sexual activity without mutual consent among the parties involved is an act of abuse. But this knowledge is not imparted in educational institutions. A lack of understanding of the fact that non-consensual sex is a crime is also a major reason for sexual violence against women in the country.

3. Popular Culture

In popular culture, like Bollywood films and songs, activities like stalking is normalised. Often the hero is shown stalking a woman and her eventually giving in and falling for him. Many recent Bollywood films like Badrinath Ki Dulhania, Ranjhana, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha have shown mainstream actors stalking the heroine. These films in fact glorifies the stalker culture. Some of the dire consequences of stalking culture is the increased number of acid attacks, rapes and murders of women. According to The Acid Survivors' Foundation of India, 250 to 300 acid attacks were reported in India in 2015.

4. Upbringing

Upbringing plays a big role in shaping the attitudes of people towards women in the country. Indian families are still largely patriarchal and the man's word is what they abide by. Young boys are impressionable, growing up with notions like men don’t cry, women are weak, men must take charge and women must listen to them. This conditioning can affect their attitudes towards women, leading to domestic violence, sexual abuse and rape.

5. Victim Blaming

Since men assume a more powerful position in the society, women end up playing a more submissive role. Since men feel entitled to sex, all rapes, abuses and harassment are justified. "She asked for it because/ she was wearing short clothes/ she behaved a certain way/ she stepped out in the night alone," are some of the victim-blaming phrases used against women. Sadly, the victims of sexual violence are also shamed in our country. A woman's purity is tied to the honour of the family and she is deemed impure once she is violated, giving the man an upper hand in controlling her fate.

6. Low Rate of Conviction

Apart from the society’s cultural and moral set-up, the lack of strict laws and a low rate of conviction are other major reasons why violence against women is so high. In comparison to some other countries, India’s laws towards crimes like rape, acid attacks and sexual violence is mild. In fact until 2013, the highest degree of punishment that could be given to a rape convict was an imprisonment for seven years. But after the anti-rape bill passed in the parliament in 2013, following the Nirbhaya rape case, an act of rape is liable to life-long imprisonment and even death penalty in extreme cases. The new law has also made other crimes like sexual harassment, molestation, acid attacks, stalking and voyeurism liable to stringent punishments.

7. Male Entitlement to Sex

Men are brought up to believe that they are entitled to demand and enjoy sex. But for women, sex is almost like a duty. This makes men impose themselves on women for their sexual satisfaction as and when they want. This often takes the form of domestic violence, torture, harassment and rapes.

In the national capital Delhi itself, according to Delhi Police's 2017 data, an average of five women were raped every day in the city. According to the NCRB report for 2016, crimes against women in India showed an increase of 2.9 percent from 2015 to 2016. These crimes include domestic violence, kidnapping, rape and sexual assault on women. The year 2018 started with a major rape cases being reported. In Kathua, an eight-year-old girl was brutally raped for days and then killed. And later this year, many horrific incidents of sexual violence have been reported.

Sadly, criminal behaviour against women in the country is now a norm. We fail to express shock or amazement when such incidents are reported.  When the #MeToo campaign started, it was shocking to see the sheer number of women on social media who shared their stories about sexual violence. Notably, these women are mostly from urban India, where sexual violence is now spoken about, reported and discussed. The women in smaller towns and rural India are not even aware of their rights, let alone talk about abuse and report it. It is high time all of us, as individuals stop playing the blame game and start doing our bit in changing the society for good and making India a happier and safer place for women to live.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 27, 2018 03:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).