With just a few days left to say goodbye to 2014, I’m left with mixed feelings over everything that happened. While we had a successful Mars mission et al, there were some horrors that I am all together glad to leave behind. India saw some major issues and women faced gender inequality, misogyny and rape too, and no Mars mission could ever make me forget that. Even as we move closer to 2015, here’s a look at the worst things that happened to women in India that we’d like to forget.
1. Badaun Gang Rape Case: In the Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh, two cousins were gang-raped in May 2014. This happened when they left their home to go to the nearby field to defacate as there were no toilets at home. The girls were murdered and hung from a tree after the crime was committed. The girls were from a Dalit family and that is allegedly the main cause of their end.
2. Mass Sterilisation: The mass sterilisation campaign in India went horribly wrong, killing 12 to15 women. These camps are a part of the population control initiative and are held regularly across India. Health workers in villages have been forcing women to go to these camps. In this particular one in Chhatisgarh, 80 women underwent laparoscopic tubectomy. But 60 of them fell ill and 14 were in dire conditions.
3. Uber Cab Rape Case: The rape of a Delhi girl by an Uber cab driver has become the talk of the town questioning the security of women and the credibility of all cab services that boast of safety for women. The driver had raped before too and there was no investigation conducted while hiring him. This puts a huge question mark on all drivers of such cab services.
4. Gauhar Khan Slapped in Public: In the 21st century, a celebrity was publicly slapped for wearing short clothes. The 24-year-old Muslim man attacked actress Gauhar Khan on the set of her show for being a Muslim and wearing revealing clothes. Bollywood and the whole media fraternity was outraged and sympathised with Gauhar.
5. The Rohtak Sisters: The sisters from Rohtak who made headlines for their daredevil act of fighting against their molesters made us proud. The video that captured them in the act also went viral for a few days. But soon there was news of the sisters fabricating the allegations and duping men for money by accusing them of molestation. Such incidents sadden us and shake our belief in humanity and justice.
6. The Bangalore Racism Case: Recently Rachel Sangliana, 34-year-old daughter of Bangalore Police Commissioner HT Sangliana was a victim of a racism attack. She was assaulted and abused by two women in a supermarket. All Rachel did was object to a couple who cut her off in the queue. The women began to abuse Rachel and yelled, “Go back to China”. They hit and puller her hair too while other people stared helplessly.
7. Teens Commit Suicide Due to Harassment: In August, 2014 two Rohtak teens named Madhu and Nimita committed suicide. The two girls who were brilliant students and aspired for a life in America were sexually harassed and ended their lives from the fear of public humiliation. So huge was their fear of humiliation and the fact that it would bring shame to their family that they thought it was easier to end their lives. Such a saddening incident.
8. Muzaffarnagar Khap’s Bizarre Diktat: In November 2014, a Khap panchayat in Muzaffarnagar passed a rule condemning women from using mobile phones, Internet or even wearing jeans. They also went to the extent of stopping people from using social networking sites such as Facebook and Whatsapp. The leader of the panchayat, Chaudhary Naresh said jeans are a part of western culture and thus should not be allowed in India as they spoil the society. Seriously?! What year are we living in again?
9. Hindutva Organisations Title Girls Prostitutes: Hindu Mahasabha leader Navin Tyagi said, “Girls sporting short clothes in item numbers should be tagged as prostitutes.” Navin is the general secretary of the UO unit of Mahasabha which is a right wing organisation. He also stated that women who earn money by indulging in obscenity are prostitutes and should be blamed for spreading filth in the society. Furthermore, he demanded that college girls be banned from wearing skirts and jeans, and even carrying mobile phones.
10. #FeministsAreUgly Trended on Twitter: Sometime in August, the hashtag #FeministsAreUgly trended on Twitter. This hashtag certainly generated some strong reactions from the feminist community. As if objectifying women wasn’t enough, it irks me too think of how obnoxious it is to be labelled as ugly for our opinions. People on Twitter, particularly women posted their pictures in protest with the hashtag. These pictures were anything but ugly.
11. 14 Honour Killings: Bhavna Yadav, a 21-year-old student of Delhi University’s Sri Venkateswara College was murdered by her parents for marrying her boyfriend (of a different caste) against their wishes. There have been such cases that were reported, seven of them from Uttar Pradesh. All these cases have the women paying a heavy price for love that usually ends in death.
12. Inappropriate Comments Made by Politicians: Politicians have time and again made us want the earth to open and swallow us up. In 2014, Mulayam Singh Yadav declared at a rally in Uttar Pradesh, “Ladkon se aisi galtiyan ho jati hain, to iska matlab yeh to nahi ki unhe phaansi de di jaaye (Boys make mistakes, but this doesn’t mean you hang them).”
13. Abu Azmi Said Women Who Have Sex Should Be Hanged: His exact words were, “Any woman who goes along with a man with or without consent should be hanged.” The only thing that made things a wee bit better was his daughter-in-law Ayesha Takia taking a stand against hime.
14. Women not Allowed to Enter Library: At the Aligarh Muslim University Library, women were banned. This weird diktat was passed by the Vice Chancellor of the university, Lt Gen Zameer Uddin Shah who did this because according to him girls distract boys and they follow them into the library which causes space issues as the library doesn’t have enough space. That’s not all the university has also banned girls from wearing western clothes and using more than one cell phone. We wonder what’s more to come.
15. Park Street Rape Victim Humiliated: Suzette Jordan the unfortunate victim of the Park Street Rape that happened in 2012 was denied entry into a restaurant in Kolkata in September, 2014. She was humiliated by the rude manager of a restaurant called Ginger in Kolkatta. When Suzette posted this on her social networking site within hours it went viral causing public outrage.
Image courtesy: BCCL, Shutterstock
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