Eve Teasing on Campus

What pleasure do men of various ages derive from eve teasing girls who could be likened to their sisters, daughters or even mothers? Being educated does not seem to make a difference. In a University one would expect some modicum of decency but the situation seems to be getting worse every year. Though few cases of eve teasing are reported every year does not mean it is not prevalent and practiced on a regular basis in the campus. Due to lack of formal complaints or even a Help line of any kind, nobody seems to be able to do anything. Girls resign themselves to eve teasing, hoping if they ignore the teasers they might be left in peace. Others decide to take matters into their own hands by always going out together in groups, taking down the license number of the vehicle and force the police to do something about it.

Matters have deteriorated to such an extent that in three separate incidents in the past year, girls have been attacked in their hostel rooms and avoided being raped only because they had the presence of mind to scream. Even then the hostel authorities were not present to take matters into their hands but it was the other “girl” hostellers who took matters into their hands by chasing the culprit and soundly thrashing him.

What the University should do is to make the university safe for women. They should start by severely punishing those boys that are caught in the act. Girls should start filling complaints against eve teasers; a little fear will go a long way.

Statistics have proved that the situation is growing larger ever year. According to a survey conducted in the mid-90s by the institute for development and communications on the atrocities on women in Punjab concluded that a woman was raped every 29 minutes, 8 women fell victim to dowry death per day, a severe wife beating occurs every 19 minutes. This is reported in the state of Chandigarh alone. As all these figures are reported can you figure the number of unreported incidence of eve teasing especially in a campus where the population of girls is considerable.

The question to be asked is whether girls are safe anywhere, despite the fact that we are living in the 21st century, a supposedly emancipated age and what is the law doing to protect them? Should not we ourselves stand up and try to make a change for our children and ourselves by giving ourselves the dignity and respect that should rightly be ours, instead of suffering silently?