Education, it is often held, is empowering for women.
S Varalakshmi, chief of the Karnataka State Anganwadi Workers’ Association, however, has quite a different opinion.
“People assume that educated women will know how to fight for their rights, and demand to be treated with dignity. In reality, that is not the case at all.
“While women in the lower classes often have no qualms about beating someone who messes with them, or even gathering a crowd to defend themselves, education often leaves a woman more self-conscious about being decorous, leaving her vulnerable to abuse.
“Even though a number of forums address the problems faced by women, the bonds that bind the educated women often lie in their own minds, as they do not take recourse to any means of addressing grievances, as they fear for their reputation. There is even resistance to registering complaints, for the fear of their reputation being sullied.”
Varalakshmi cited the case of a woman who was raped in a government office in Bangalore recently. “Although the victim was ready to register a complaint, her husband, an advocate, refused to have anything to do with a formal complaint. How can other people fight for the rights of women when the victims themselves refuse to come forward?” asks Varalakshmi.
In Bangalore alone, last year, there were 308 cases registered under Section 354 of the IPC, relating to ‘outraging the modesty of women’. The actual number of such cases, it is common knowledge, far outnumbers those that are registered. ‘Sexual harassment,’ after all, implies not only physical molestation or rape, but also lewd gestures and verbal assaults. These often go unreported, as many women learn to deal with these assaults without seeking the intervention of law enforcing authorities.
Even the police are often not able to act in time to prevent heinous crimes against women. The case of the brutal murder of a 76-year-old woman at her home in Banashankri was reported in city newspapers on Tuesday.
Jayashree, a housewife and resident of Bannerghatta Road, said, “My husband leaves for work and the children go to school, and I am often alone in the house for several hours each day. Many of the women in my neighbourhood work, and many of those who stay home are from elsewhere in the country, so they keep to themselves. Two weeks ago, I saw two well-dressed men emerge from one of the houses, and assumed that they were guests of neighbours. Only later did I realise that a house in the neighbourhood had been burgled, and that the men could have been behind it.”
Police say that insular neighbourhoods are more prone to burglary and brutal attacks. When residents do not recognise neighbours, attackers or burglars can meld into the neighbourhood with greater ease. An officer investigating the Banashankari murder said, “Despite the houses being so close, the neighbours had no notion of what happened.”
Commissioner of police Shankar Bidari said, “It is not possible for the police to guard each home.”
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