The Supreme Court has given an impetus to the right of women to lead a life of dignity in confirming a seven-year jail sentence on a man who pushed a woman into committing suicide by relentless harassment. The court’s assertion that a woman’s right to equality and a life of dignity is guaranteed by the Constitution is a reminder to society and to all males that women also have a right to their own space and a total freedom of choice of who they love, an entitlement that must be legally and socially recognised. How the nation has lost the plot on this is clear from how prevalent this practice of harassing women in public spaces has become — a woman’s dignity is compromised every time she steps out of home to go to study, to work or simply to shop or enjoy herself.
The woman of our country are the victims of male chauvinism, a state of mind that is easily forgiven in a male-dominated society and which tends to play down such practices as “Eve teasing” on the premise that “boys will be boys”. Why the term was ever invented is a mystery. It does no justice to the first ever lady whose successors are in such a state in this country as to be constantly harassed by the gaze and actions of men that offend the very concept of gender sensitivity and justice. From their schooldays, the fairer sex could be subjected to this “teasing” robbing them of their sense of security. What the country needs is a fundamental look at the issue, beginning with a stronger term for harassment of women that is not so lighthearted as a “tease”. This phenomenon which degrades women must be eradicated by sustained campaign on gender equality that has some chance of changing the existing mentality.
