'Eve Teasing' in India: Fighting for Change

As Sexual Violence Grows

Posted:
03/3/10
Filed Under:The Cram
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Every day, I attract unwanted

attention from Indian men -- even if I am drenched in sweat and sporting a parachute's worth of
cloth (for modesty of course). Cars slow down to pass me, roadside workers stop, and groups of
guys get the giggles when I traipse by. Sometimes they whisper. Sometimes they ask for a photo.
Sometimes they touch me. Once a man in the market, after staring for some time, threw a grape
at my roommate's chest and winked.
At first I thought it was because of my fair skin. But sexual harassment is rampant throughout

India for all young women, regardless of race or nationality.

India's Deep, Growing Problem

Violence against women is the fastest-growing crime in India, according to the National Crime
Records Bureau. In 2007 (the most recent year of available data), sexual harassment cases
increased by 10 percent, and nearly 200,000 cases of violence against women were reported -- an
increase of 12 percent in only one year.
"Every day you look at the newspaper you find so much," said Dr. Rekha Pande, coordinator of
the Centre for Women's Studies at the University of Hyderabad. "Being born a daughter is
[almost] not being born human. Women do not have that kind of status. And it is increasing -- the
violence is increasing."
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In Hindu tradition, a wife is believed to be part of her husband. Women used to throw themselves
onto their dead husbands' funeral pyres rather than accept being "left behind," which was seen as
very honorable. These views persist despite the women's movement of the 50s and 60s after
India's independence from Britain. "We have a very traditional society, it's a very feudal kind of a
society," Pande said. "And suddenly we have this whole understanding of women's roles and we
have a culture that is more than 3,500 years old, which is a very patriarchal culture."
Yet independent-minded women often battle the perception that they are amoral and
promiscuous, a view that is fed by the portrayals of sexuality by Western entertainment and
celebrities that have become very popular in India. When combined with an entrenched
patriarchal mindset and harassment laws that are not taken seriously, the influence of
globalization contributes to an increasingly dangerous environment for Indian women.
Eve Teasing Across India
"Eve teasing" is the slang term for sexual harassment. It refers to the biblical first lady and
includes anything from lecherous glances to unwanted touching. "It's any time a woman is teased
in a sexual way," explained Ranjani Prasad, a first-year communications student at the University
of Hyderabad.
Prasad is the student representative for the Gender Sensitization and Committee Against Sexual
Harassment -- GS CASH for short. It helps women deal with Eve teasing, and raises awareness
about sexual harassment on campus.

Committees like GS CASH were implemented across India after the Vishaka Cases in 1997, in
which a female government worker was raped by five men. The supreme court of India
mandated that every school and workplace form a complaint committee -- led by a woman -- to
address sexual harassment.
"Often it's the woman who bears the burden of it all," Prasad said. "The idea is that if you are a
good, modest Indian woman you won't be sexually harassed. So any woman who comes out with
a sexual harassment case I see as very brave."
Though women found their voice and fought for their rights in the mid-twentieth century,
claiming that the best way to modernize the country was to modernize its women, equality is still
a work in progress.
"At least now it is being recognized," said Pande. "When we were students you could not even
call it sexual harassment or Eve teasing. It was just, you were born a girl and you have to live
with it."
Last year, Pande helped conduct a study on sexual harassment in the workplace for the National
Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development. Her job was to check up on the
government-mandated committees in all sorts of institutions -- public and private businesses,
government offices, and colleges and universities.
What she found was distressing. In the state of Andhra Pradesh, she said, so few rural
organizations had committees that they had to be excluded from the study. In the cities, sexual
harassment was barely being addressed. She said that many places had no committees, or that
they were formed at the last minute before Pande's team arrived.
"Many places have a place that says 'sexual harassment committee room' or something, but it's
used as a dump yard or it's used as a place to have tea," she said. "They were not keeping any
records, they were not maintaining any files. The overall attitude was very lax."
A Work In Progress
At the University of Hyderabad, GS CASH holds informational sessions at the start of every
term and deals with complaints as they come.
"Sexual harassment is a reality," Pande said. "But at least in our university we are trying to build
a very strong ground saying that we will not tolerate any of this nonsense."
Pande was a member of GS CASH for its first three years. She and her colleagues investigated
all sorts of incidents, including those between students, faculty and students, and internet users.
In many cases, Pande said, the university only passed minimal discipline on Eve teasers.
"We found the committee does not have teeth," Pande said. "It cannot take up a decision. At the
most it can formulate certain rules and pass it on to the vice chancellor."

In one case, a female student was harassed by her research guide. Pande's committee sent a
report to the vice chancellor, who failed to "implement authority," she said. He appointed a judge
who took up the hearing, but it was a year and a half before the investigation ended. The faculty
member was eventually barred from administrative positions, though he was still allowed to
teach.
Ruchika: A Landmark Case?
One of the most controversial court cases in India right now is the Ruchika case. In 1990, at the
age of 14, Ruchika was molested by a prominent police officer. A month later, she was expelled
from her school for unexplained reasons. Three years later she committed suicide. In December
2009, her assaulter received his sentence -- six months in jail and a fine of Rs. 1000, or about
$20.
Amid public outrage, the central government decided to reexamine the case and the severity of
the sentence (a new hearing is set for April 5). The case's high profile could have an impact on
the wider Eve teasing norm, if only by establishing stricter punishments. Some activists hope the
case will call attention to a proposed bill called the Sexual Harassment Bill that would help bring
about more sweeping changes, including making it easier for women to report harassment and
receive treatment.
Yet it is clear that the law needs to be supported by regular enforcement and acceptance. "The
overall attitude in Indian society, not only to sexual harassment, is to suppress things," Pande
said. "And in India, the laws are there -- we have fantastic laws -- but the mindset has to change."