The threat of ‘odd hours’ looms large over Indian women

There is merit in Chandigarh Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president Ramveer Bhatti’s statement that women who are out late at “odd hours” risk being stalked — stalking being the lesser evil. He has been whipped all over town for his sexism, feudalism, misogynism and bigotry.

Bhatti’s comment is actually a no-brainer. Shorn of context and the tacit endorsement, it is cent per cent true. Some men naturally assume a woman on the streets is a fair game. A woman on any street (The United States apparently accounts for more than half of the rapes in the world) is always at the risk of being stalked, molested, raped, murdered, or, at the very least, whistled at, hooted or subjected to a lewd couplet. Age doesn’t matter. This is a rite of passage for all women, and a fact of daily existence for many.

Bhatti had merely articulated a known fact. No amount of defiance or condemnation will take away from the truth of his statement. History has shown that many men cannot help themselves, especially at “odd hours”, as Bhatti calls them. The even hours are not necessarily partial to women, but the darker forces of the night make a woman mysteriously irresistible to some men. It’s a nature thing. At night, she’s at higher risk of these natural male behavioural occurrences, especially in certain high-testosterone conditions.

Because some men cannot resist women, all women have to behave in a way so that these particular men stay away from them. Ergo, turning deductive logic on its head, every woman is beholden to make sure she remains resistible. Veils, kaftans that strip her of any identifier as a human, confinement at home, social restrictions are some ways of ensuring men behave themselves. Much like the apocryphal apple that kept the doctor away, these ‘undercover’ female robots keep the men at arm’s length.

Bhatti belongs to a school of thought that is as old as mankind. In the 1970s, women across European cities marched for years opposing the male domination of the night space and the threat he held out to the female species if she ever stepped out in the dark. 

In West Germany (as it was then known), women marched as one to protest sexual harassment. In the United Kingdom, they took the form of ‘Reclaim the Night’ marches that turned into a movement. The US, too, joined in with its version of the ‘Take Back the Night’ marches. The stir spread across countries and is still alive because nothing has changed. Women do not learn.

The UK marches were provoked by serial abuse and murders of women by the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’. The police investigation was crawling and the media did not care. The police came up with an advice that seemed to be their only weapon to prevent these crimes. “Stay at home,” they told the women.

To this day, the mental curfew has not been lifted. An Amnesty International poll in 2005 found that over a third of British people, who polled, believed some women attracted inappropriate behaviour by their dressing and drinking. Now we know why men connect easily with one another. They think alike.

Last New Year’s Eve saw Bangalore hit a new low with mass scale molestation and harassment of women revellers on MG Road and Brigade Road. Could you blame the drunken clods with roaring hormones if semi-clad women were found in their midst? If the food is attractive, one eats. Do you worry about the rights of the food while eating? What’s the difference between food and women? We will never know.

Varnika is Everywoman. There’s nothing exceptional about her case except that she is pushing it. Will she be able to push it to a tipping point? I doubt. Will she deter a few from stalking women? Certainly. Should we toast to that? Maybe, but lift your hood carefully before you drink. 

The author is a senior journalist and a communications consultant