Just outrage is useless to ensure women’s safety

Sexual assault in India isn’t just an act of gender-based violence; it is also one that reinforces caste and power equations and the structural biases inherent in society. 

As if to underscore this point comes the Justice Hema Committee report—heavily redacted and released this week, five years after it was submitted to the Kerala government following the abduction and sexual assault of a leading female actor. It details the ubiquitous prevalence of sexual harassment and exploitation in the Malayalam film industry. 

The problems range from the absence of toilets, safe transportation and legal work contracts to the existence of a small, powerful coterie of men that gets to decide who works and under what circumstances. Shocking as it may be, this isn’t unexpected—and distressingly, similar problems prevail in almost every industry. 

They may not have been documented, except in whispers and warnings, and therefore, men and women choose not to see them or prefer to make compromises and work around them to keep their place. 

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Silence is the most damaging aspect of rape, and safety in the workplace, irrespective of profession, is largely absent in India. Both are serious hurdles to economic development as well as social justice. 

The report observes in the context of lack of toilets that “this peculiar situation exists… because men do not understand or try to understand or pretend not to understand the basic needs of a woman,” but replace the word ‘needs’ with ‘rights’ and this could apply to any aspect of workplace inequality in any profession.

The cascade of headlines lately about violent crimes against women has been accompanied, somewhat predictably, by strident calls for the harshest punishment for perpetrators and even the death penalty. 

On social media and during protest marches demanding justice for the young Kolkata doctor, the demands are loud for capital punishment, new laws, central ordinances and other forms of instant retribution. India’s laws are stringent enough; it is enforcement that is poor. 

This is compounded by a lack of will to ensure equal rights for all citizens, irrespective of gender, and an unwillingness to take a clear-eyed view of the real causes of the violence against women. 

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Numerous studies have shown that in India and around the world, it is the most vulnerable who tend to attract the harshest sentences, indicating that power, position and money can influence application of the law. 

Punishment, therefore, is little deterrent to crimes against women when the root cause is a lack of equality, and systems that privilege those who identify as heterosexual and male.

Sexual violence is also about reinforcing dominance in a world that is changing faster than one can fathom. The way ahead lies in understanding that there will be some temporary loss of control for those who currently wield power, but there will be other gains for everyone in a more equal world. 

Sexual threats are used to police women’s behaviour—online trolls employ it to silence outspoken thinkers, writers and activists; families rely on it to manipulate women into doing their bidding; workplaces use it to deny women assignments that could advance their careers. 

Prevailing social attitudes, cultural norms and institutions protect perpetrators and demand that women make the effort to keep themselves safe while taking the lead in the transformation of society. 

Also read: Workplace safety is not negotiable at any level

This is both unreasonable and unfair. Without an understanding of real justice and change in ideas of what constitutes true equality, outrage is useless.