Sexist cops destroying economy?

It was already a bumper year for obnoxious and dangerously stupid statements from Indian police officials on the subject of violence against women. Just in time to push 2011 way over the top, Andhra Pradesh police chief Dinesh Reddy chimed in on Saturday by blaming provocative dresses for an increase in rape cases in his state, saying this was beyond the police’s control.

A lot has been written about the politics of dressing, Besharmi Morchas, women’s rights vs Indian tradition, etc. Unfortunately, a lot of these debates get quickly bogged down in weighty discussions of culture and feminism. There’s a more immediate, materialistic issue that I haven’t seen discussed much: how prevailing official attitudes about the way women should dress and act are hurting the country economically.

In most of Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Oceania, and in large parts of Africa and East Asia as well, a woman can wear a short dress or a sleeveless t-shirt without attracting undue attention or comments or any societal disapproval whatsoever.

She can wear such clothes on a crowded public street, while drinking beer in a cafe, and often to work. The average woman who dresses this way is probably not consciously ‘dressing provocatively’; she may be simply wearing summer clothes because it’s hot. To be sure, she’s aware that men may find her attractive. But she considers herself safe, because she knows that most men can behave themselves, and that if she needs help protecting herself from the few violent types who can’t, she can turn to the police.

Women make up half the world’s population, and over the last century — statistically speaking, as a group — they have steadily become better educated, more financially independent, and more economically powerful. Today, women of all races and nationalities are managing companies, investing in new ones, and making high-powered business deals. They are experts in specialised fields of science, engineering, governance, and social service. They are also touring the world for pleasure, often spending their own money and travelling without male companions.

India is not a friendly place for these foreign businesswomen or solo women travellers. When they walk through the streets of our cities, they are subjected to uncomfortable stares, sleazy comments, and worse. The truth is that it hardly matters what they wear. One thing is for sure: when they hear top cops like Dinesh Reddy or Delhi chief BK Gupta spout chauvinist opinions that legitimise the harassment, it does not make them feel safer.

Sure, there are a few foreign women who fall in love with the country despite all this and set down roots. But I personally know several whose experiences have been so harrowing that they are not interested in coming back, and many others who won’t even consider a trip because of India’s reputation for ill-treating women visitors. These women take their expertise, their business investments, and their tourist money elsewhere, to places where they can wear what they please and go where they like without fear of being leered at and sneered at by men in uniform.

And it’s not just foreigners. There are millions of smart, hard-working Indian women who rightly feel they deserve simple pleasures like being able to dress up and go out dancing with friends once in a while. We know India suffers from brain drain as many of our best educated young people decide to emigrate to richer, better-governed countries. This moral policing only adds to the list of reasons for our most capable women to want to leave.

Change has to come from the top. Here’s a new year’s resolution I’d like to see for 2012: Let government and law enforcement officials come out and say loud and clear, in each of our many languages, that the victims of sexual harassment and assault will not be blamed, no matter what clothes they were wearing or what time of day they were driving their vehicles. It is the police’s duty to protect law-abiding people from criminals, full stop. Officers who try to duck this responsibility by blaming short skirts and unladylike behaviour must be summarily removed from their positions, if India is ever to become a superpower.