"Daughters are awesome, daughters are divine, they sparkle, they dazzle, they brilliantly shine. In a blink, they can twirl the universe if they aspire. Alas! The society fears to validate what they desire."
With every one in three women across the globe experiencing violence in myriad ways, the World Health Organisation has declared violence against women a global public health pandemic. 'Orange the World' campaign has made its roar for ending violence against women and girls heard in every nook and corner. From a 72-year-old man from France allowing men to rape his wife repeatedly for over a decade, to rape being used as a weapon of war in conflict zones in Sudan, cases of sexual violence are making headlines these days. Peeping inside our own boundaries, while the screams of Nirbhaya still echoed in our ears, our nation was shriveled witnessing the Kolkata rape case.
UN General Assembly in 1993, defined violence against women as "any act of gender-based violence that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. " When touching the distressing string of violence against women, we must not forget that violence against women is not always sexual. Emotional, psychological, socio-economic, physical, verbal, etc. violence also adds a huge baggage into the extremity a woman is liable to bear as a daughter, daughter-in-law, wife and even as a mother.
Female Genital Mutilation, involving cutting or mutilating female genitalia, is also worth mentioning when talking about violence against women.
Literature has always acted as a mirror and a reflection of our society. The condition of women in our society has been a matter of concern for decades. Gita Hariharan, in her The Thousand Faces of Night, diligently carves the predicament of women. The female characters in the novel show how women are expected to accept all sorts of violence as their fate. Umma and Gauri are victims of domestic violence and physical abuse, and the protagonist Devi experiences emotional, psychological, and physical turmoil, which only gets worse as she gets married. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen is a text from the 19th century, the Victorian age. It is depressing to know that the text still holds relevance to throw light on violence against women in our society. Throughout the play, Nora is treated like a puppet by her husband; she grapples for financial independence and mental stability. The play brings forward the unfortunate psychological, financial, and physical condition of women during those times.
As per a data sourced from UN, around 120 million girls worldwide have experienced forced intercourse at some point in their lives, worldwide, more than 250 million of women were married before the age of 15, who are less likely to complete their education and more likely to experience domestic violence and complications in childbirth; women and girls account for about 70 per cent of all human trafficking victims globally; and the costs and consequences of violence against women last for generations. The National Crime Records Bureau claims, in comparison to prior years, there has been a 15.3% increase in crime against women as per their latest report. Most of these cases of violence come from 'cruelty by husband or his relatives' which is followed by 'assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty, ' kidnapping and abduction, and rape.
Marriage, as Simon de Beauvoir puts it, "diminishes man, which is often true; but almost it annihilates women. ' The institution of marriage, though, is an obligation for all as per the societal norms. But evidently, it is known to take a great toll on the emotional, psychological, and physical aspects of a woman. Most women, as they get married, are victims of emotional, psychological, and domestic violence. From the burden of dowry and daughters being considered as "paraya dhan" since they are born, and later being treated as an outsider by her in-laws, it all revolves around her being married and going to another house. Hence, though not at all easy to achieve and may even sound completely against our social and traditional dictums, a concrete solution to make women's lives better would be a law that requires for starting a separate household every time a marriage takes place. This will create a sense of equality that may it be a girl or a boy, both will be married ultimately and start a new life. This will help in making the society as much tolerant towards a girl child as they already are towards a boy, eliminating the fear of being left unattended if they have only a daughter. As both girls and boys will be subject to the same outcome, they will both ultimately be able to support their parents. But not to forget, this is not a one-day task but a revolution of minds and traditions, and if worked upon, will end the issues of female foeticide, domestic violence, physical, emotional, and psychological traumas a woman is coerced to face all her life.
The society, government and courts have geared up to churn out concrete solutions and prevention mechanisms to support women. Laxmi vs Union of India 2014 imposed restrictions on the sale of acid and provided compensation to the acid attack victims. Vishaka vs state of Rajasthan, 1992 led to guidelines to prevent sexual harassment of women in works places and of course the entire world is aware of the 2012 Delhi gang rape case which led to significant amendments in India's criminal laws introducing harsher penalties for sexual offenses. The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, Ujjwala scheme, The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence
Act 2015 and many other such acts and initiatives have been rolled out by our government.
Looking beyond our national boundaries, we see that recently US passed a bill to deport immigrants convicted of violence against women. Many more efforts in the form of declarations, awareness campaigns, behavioral conditioning are being done at the individual and global levels to address the issue. Alas! We are aware that violence against women continues to be an obstacle to achieving equality, development and the Sustainable Development Goals, which promise to leave no one behind.
Need today is not only to raise debates, make posters and hold protests but to inculcate in the society or simply in the minds of both men and women that pink for girls and blue for boys is not a norm and marital rape is also rape. Women themselves must negate the fate which this so-called 'sacrosanct' society dictates to them. Now is the time when an ideal woman is not the one who can endure atrocities of this patriarchal world perfectly with a smile, but the one who is financially independent, academically as well as socially educated, knows where to be flexible and where concrete, who pampers her loved ones but at the same time keeps her own self healthy, physically, and mentally. Who can speak up for herself as well as her family whenever required without fear.
Long story short, women, since the days they were dragged into the practice of the devadasi system and in performing the cruel ritual of sati, to now being gaslighted by their male guardians, have been puppets in the hands of this patriarchal society. The ever-evolving society has evidently failed to come out of its flawed dictions of considering women as mere objects. Hence, it is time, the woman of today to bring evolution in her behavior. Audacity in actions and flamboyance in speech blended with feasible cooperation and negation of chauvinism can help bring a revolution in the status of women and end violence of all sorts, making the world a better place to live in.