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“81% of women and 43% of men have faced sexual harassment in their lives.”
Sexual harassment is an unwanted, unpleasant and unwelcomed remark, gesture, action or touch in an inappropriate nature. Some acts that could be considered as sexual harassment are inappropriate touch, derogatory language, rape, persistent requests to engage in sex or stalking. Sexual harassment is not just constricted to young women but also infants, toddlers, adolescents, adults, elderly, and sometimes even corpses of all kinds of genders, which indicates that you have a 100% chance of getting harassed from the time of birth and even after death. Just like the victims the harasser can also be of any gender and the act may be done on an opposite gender or the same gender. Nearly every story we hear today in podcasts, news channels, newspapers, interviews or social media includes some kind of harassment faced by a victim.
A survey has found out that
“Over half of women and almost 1 in 3 men have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact during their lifetimes. One in 4 women and about 1 in 26 men have experienced completed or attempted rape. About 1 in 9 men were made to penetrate someone during his lifetime. Additionally, 1 in 3 women and about 1 in 9 men experienced sexual harassment in a public place.”
The various kinds of sexual harassment that people face are quid pro quo harassment in the workplace where sexual favours are expected in return for promotions, employee benefits or raises. Verbal harassment where disgusting sexual remarks are made upon people either in person or on the internet. Visual Harassment is giving perverted looks that can make the other person uncomfortable. Last but not the least Physical harassment can include inappropriate touches or rape. The prevalence of sexual harassment can be seen in all aspects of our lives which is very concerning. The horrifying affect it can have on a person’s mental and physical health is not talked about enough. The after affect that it has does way more harm to them than the actual event. Anxiety, depression, overthinking, self-blame, low self-esteem, changes in weight, changes in behaviour and a feeling of sadness. In order to protect the interest of these victims several laws persist in our Constitution. *Sexual harassment is considered as a violation of the fundamental right of a woman to equality as guaranteed under Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution of India ("Constitution"), and her right to life and to live with dignity as per Article 21 of the Constitution.
Sexual harassment is prevalent in Middle Eastern, African region or countries with the same cultural background. In these areas the patriarchal society, male dominance, and ancestral norms are some of the major causes of a large population of women going through sexual violence. The underlying growth factor behind such a mindset is the legal system where a
woman is considered unequal in front of their male counterparts. Women are expected to follow a specific code of conduct and adhere to societal norms which ends up supressing them under the tyrannical rule of the culture. A constant fear is instilled in the minds of young women who might become a victim of assault in circumstances of war, in marriage, and if they decide to rebel against the system to stand up for their beliefs. This orthodox demeanour also persists in rural areas of several developing countries where people refuse to move forward with time and don’t allow the females of the household to get equal opportunities in education and profession to reach great heights.
Even in the 21st century it is melancholy that this is such a common occurrence in a person’s life and I believe that such a problem is persistent because of the issue in our roots. Gender equality problems, patriarchy, toxic masculinity, backward thinking, reserved mindsets and unending attention on figures like Andrew Tate are few of the causes. Therefore instilling positive and respectful values in young children from a tender age can put an end to these viewpoints and prevent them from modelling their minds according to trending things on the social media.
The solution lies in women and like-minded men coming together to promote gender equality from educational systems to offices. An epitome of this is, Laxmi Aggarwal, an acid attack survivor who opened an organisation called Chhanv Foundation with Alox Dixit and Ashish Shukla to help fellow survivors in regaining their confidence and self-esteem. The start-up is doing wonders in rehabilitation and employment of women. At grass root level awareness talks should be held where women working from all kinds of fields like, engineering, medicine, civil services, law, politics, fashion and police services could shed light on their specific careers and inspire young girls to achieve their goals. Not only will it aspire them but also prove the ones who believe the contrary that women are capable of achieving anything and everything.
To banish these inhumane acts from our society altogether we need to start educating people. Respecting all genders and their decisions should be a core value in all of us. The first step towards this should be inculcation in school curriculum. We have loads of talks about sexual education but not enough about sexual abuse or harassment. By doing this we’ll not only prevent this but also encourage more people to speak up about it. Usually under the fear of societal pressure or image degradation, a lot of people don’t express the instances they’ve been through. They feel ashamed when the abuser should be the one feeling it. Standing up for yourself is a result of a chain reaction so it is your responsibility as a fellow human being to open the door for many others. The punishment for them should be way worse than the one they get it because it is as bad as murdering someone. Instead of literally murdering them, they tend to kill the person’s dignity.
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