PaRCha - JNU - AISA material - 2012 ID-32361
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How Should We Struggle Against Sexual Harassment? What Should 'Gender-Sensitisation' Mean? How to Revitalise GSCASH? .
A Perspective .
The GSCASH in JNU, and elected student representation in GSCASH, came into being as a result of sustained struggles by students and teachers against sexual harassment. Even before Supreme Court's historic Vishakha Judgement (1997), JNU campus started debating the need for an autonomous body, outside the ambit of the Proctorial Board, at campus level to deal with cases of sexual harassment. So when the Supreme court made it mandatory to create a body against sexual harassment at every workplace (the Vishakha Judgement), the ground was already mature in the campus through debates and discussions from early on and JNU became one of the first institutions to create its own GSCASH. .
As we approach GSCASH elections in JNU, 'gender-sensitisation' remains one of the key tasks of the GSCASH. What do we mean by 'gender-sensitisation'? In my view, 'gender-sensitisation' cannot just mean a concern for 'protecting' women from sexual harassment. We need to actively ask uncomfortable questions, and disturb the attitudes to gender and sexual violence that we inherit from society and are an 'automatic' part of the dominant 'commonsense'. .
Not Patriarchal Protection But Equal Access to Public Spaces .
Just recently, a sting operation by Tehelka has confirmed the ugly truth: police officers in the NCR region believe most women 'ask for rape'; they believe that women who wear modern clothes, have male friends, drink alcohol, are divorced, etc are all 'provoking' men to rape them. The sting also showed how these cops have a deeply ingrained bias against women from 'Darjeeling, Nepal, North East', saying that these women are all prostitutes who falsely complain of rape. Of course, it isn't only beat cops who think like this: top cops like KPS Gill, Chief ministers like Sheila Dixit and Mamata Banerjee, have all said similar things. .
But my point is that patriarchal attitudes are not just on display when the policemen are caught displaying biases towards rape victims in a sting operation. These patriarchal attitudes are on display even when the police are in full public view, 'protecting' women. Take the instance of a recent Delhi Police ad campaign against violence on women, that has a popular actor/director saying, Make Delhi safer for women. Are you man enough to join me? Don't sit back and allow violence against women. Fight it. Report it. .
Another ad that the Delhi Police has been using for several years (can be viewed at www.delhipolice.nic.in/home/advertisement/Women%20Safety/...) uses a photograph of a woman at a bus stop being harassed by some men, while a man and a woman look on passively. The ad copy says, There are no men in this picture
Or this would not happen
Surely you can't let a woman be teased in front of you? You are a real man. You know how humiliating and embarrassing it is for her. So protect her. And help her. Escort her away from the scene.
Save her from shame and hurt
Protect women from eve teasers. .
There is no contradiction between the ideology of patriarchal protection in the Delhi Police's ads, and the patriarchal stereotypes and biases displayed by its policemen in Tehelka's sting. These ads refuse to recognize that the very machismo and masculine protectiveness they are invoking against violence on women, is in many instances responsible for the violence that women face! As the Hindi proverb has it, jis laung se bhoot bhaga rahe the, bhoot usi laung mein tha (the sense of which can be roughly rendered as: the disease lurks in the very pill thats prescribed as a panacea). After all, arent the men who seek to control their sisters or daughters friendships, relationships and mobility; who ask their wives to avoid wearing jeans; who commit honour crimes, real men, acting in a socially-sanctioned way, as guardians and protectors of women? If a woman is indecently dressed, or if she was out late at night or at a pub/nightclub, and therefore failing to display the shame that is expected of her, doesnt she fall outside the protective circle of masculine guardianship? Isnt she, in other words, less than a real woman, according to patriarchal thinking, and therefore, deserving of rape? Isnt it possible, according to the Delhi Police's own cops, that real men mistook her for a slut, a woman without chastity and shame, who neither needs nor deserves masculine protectiveness? .
.
.
So, 'gender-sensitisation' must mean that in our classrooms, in our hostels, in our public celebrations and gatherings (such as hostel nights and fresher/farewell parties), we go beyond .
1 .
.
.
.
PaRCha - JNU - AISA material - 2012 ID-32361
.
How Should We Struggle Against Sexual Harassment? What Should 'Gender-Sensitisation' Mean? How to Revitalise GSCASH? .
A Perspective .
The GSCASH in JNU, and elected student representation in GSCASH, came into being as a result of sustained struggles by students and teachers against sexual harassment. Even before Supreme Court's historic Vishakha Judgement (1997), JNU campus started debating the need for an autonomous body, outside the ambit of the Proctorial Board, at campus level to deal with cases of sexual harassment. So when the Supreme court made it mandatory to create a body against sexual harassment at every workplace (the Vishakha Judgement), the ground was already mature in the campus through debates and discussions from early on and JNU became one of the first institutions to create its own GSCASH. .
As we approach GSCASH elections in JNU, 'gender-sensitisation' remains one of the key tasks of the GSCASH. What do we mean by 'gender-sensitisation'? In my view, 'gender-sensitisation' cannot just mean a concern for 'protecting' women from sexual harassment. We need to actively ask uncomfortable questions, and disturb the attitudes to gender and sexual violence that we inherit from society and are an 'automatic' part of the dominant 'commonsense'. .
Not Patriarchal Protection But Equal Access to Public Spaces .
Just recently, a sting operation by Tehelka has confirmed the ugly truth: police officers in the NCR region believe most women 'ask for rape'; they believe that women who wear modern clothes, have male friends, drink alcohol, are divorced, etc are all 'provoking' men to rape them. The sting also showed how these cops have a deeply ingrained bias against women from 'Darjeeling, Nepal, North East', saying that these women are all prostitutes who falsely complain of rape. Of course, it isn't only beat cops who think like this: top cops like KPS Gill, Chief ministers like Sheila Dixit and Mamata Banerjee, have all said similar things. .
But my point is that patriarchal attitudes are not just on display when the policemen are caught displaying biases towards rape victims in a sting operation. These patriarchal attitudes are on display even when the police are in full public view, 'protecting' women. Take the instance of a recent Delhi Police ad campaign against violence on women, that has a popular actor/director saying, Make Delhi safer for women. Are you man enough to join me? Don't sit back and allow violence against women. Fight it. Report it. .
Another ad that the Delhi Police has been using for several years (can be viewed at www.delhipolice.nic.in/home/advertisement/Women%20Safety/...) uses a photograph of a woman at a bus stop being harassed by some men, while a man and a woman look on passively. The ad copy says, There are no men in this picture
Or this would not happen
Surely you can't let a woman be teased in front of you? You are a real man. You know how humiliating and embarrassing it is for her. So protect her. And help her. Escort her away from the scene.
Save her from shame and hurt
Protect women from eve teasers. .
There is no contradiction between the ideology of patriarchal protection in the Delhi Police's ads, and the patriarchal stereotypes and biases displayed by its policemen in Tehelka's sting. These ads refuse to recognize that the very machismo and masculine protectiveness they are invoking against violence on women, is in many instances responsible for the violence that women face! As the Hindi proverb has it, jis laung se bhoot bhaga rahe the, bhoot usi laung mein tha (the sense of which can be roughly rendered as: the disease lurks in the very pill thats prescribed as a panacea). After all, arent the men who seek to control their sisters or daughters friendships, relationships and mobility; who ask their wives to avoid wearing jeans; who commit honour crimes, real men, acting in a socially-sanctioned way, as guardians and protectors of women? If a woman is indecently dressed, or if she was out late at night or at a pub/nightclub, and therefore failing to display the shame that is expected of her, doesnt she fall outside the protective circle of masculine guardianship? Isnt she, in other words, less than a real woman, according to patriarchal thinking, and therefore, deserving of rape? Isnt it possible, according to the Delhi Police's own cops, that real men mistook her for a slut, a woman without chastity and shame, who neither needs nor deserves masculine protectiveness? .
.
.
So, 'gender-sensitisation' must mean that in our classrooms, in our hostels, in our public celebrations and gatherings (such as hostel nights and fresher/farewell parties), we go beyond .
1 .
.
.
.