Well, am back again to write something about that really amazed me during my internship in Bangalore, in ANI (Asian News International)Back ground information:
Ours is a Broadcast news agency. This year for the journalism students, we are suppose to do it in broadcast media so that the students have a hang of all medias and see how each works differently. last year I did it in Print, so i already have a hang of that! So this time, after much searching and praying I got through this organisation. I did many stories for them and saw how stories are done in different manner. In the first few weeks I was asked to accompany my reporter and see how stories are being done. One story really struck my mind and made me unforgettable as it was such an awesome attempt! It really amazed me!
And now the story....
Our reporter, cameraman and me went to Max-Muller Bhavan in CMH road, Blore to cover an exhibition by Blank Noise.
Blank noise is a volunteer-led, public and participatory arts project that addresses street sexual harassment or in simple terms - E.V.E Teasing!
This time they came out with an exhibition containing clothes of women worn during sexual harassment, pictures of women being harassed, videos of harassed woman, audios of discussions of sexual harassment and interestingly a mock video of a news reader, how she reads the news of eve-teasing cases and how a man comes and harasses her!
I think the exhibition was mind blowing with the background noises of women and the mood of the room!
Apart form the exhibition display, if you look at what they call eve - teasing is;
- Staring
- Rubbing in the crowd
- Passing comments
- Touching
- Making lewd gestures
- Whistling
- Pinching
And on...
Well, women can even sue or taken legal action against them if the opposite sex does any of the above.
Section 354 says,
Well, women can even sue or taken legal action against them if the opposite sex does any of the above.
Section 354 says,
Whoever assaults or uses criminal forces to any women intending to outrage or knowing it be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extent to two years or with fine or with both.
If a guy even stares at you for more than minute in a cheesy way, then almost every other guy will be in jail!
But how many has the guts to stand up is my question?
How many has the courage to slap a guy if he harasses, or does any of the above?
How many has the courage to walk to the police station to lodge a complaint against the man?
All this while we have been either a silent victim and a mute spectator! It is not been noticed as a C.R.I.M.E as it has been granted normality due to its sheer daily occurrence.
Every woman in a way has been sexual harassed. Either in a bus (which is the most-common), or while walking in a street or any way!
Some people argue that it is due to the some urban women who dress half - naked and they are the cause for these eve-teasing! Thats definitely true in a way.
But men cant escape by singing the same old story. If you look at the ratio, more of rural or innocent women or girls who wear proper clothings also gets harassed.
I sometimes wonder whether these sicken men do these kind of heroism - look - alike things to girls who look innocent.
I once saw an old man doing cheesy stuff to this small school girl, my friends who were with me in the bus did see, but no one had the GUTS to stand up and slap that guy. I felt really ashamed of myself that day. I felt am a total loser who didn't have basic guts to stand up for that girl, I thought then "How will I be a journalist then?"
I remember this incident which happened to my friend while we were traveling in the bus. She was wrongly accused by a drunker who kept on telling that the other guy harassed her. But the truth was no one harmed us and he was wrongly accusing that poor man. As the fight continued to get louder we then knew they were actually talking about us! My lovely friend (whom I appreciate her for her GUTS in everything) stood up and shouted at him saying if anyone has harmed us, we know better than others.
Yes, that ******* drunker was thrown out of the bus. If she had not openly said that, he would be harassing or insulting us in way. Thanks to my friend who did that with so much of courage! *appreciations*
If every woman stands up for her rights like her, there will be NO MORE of this torture and we can move around freely with all eyes on something else and not on every other guy, who keeps staring us.
I somehow think, this will be a dream.....
Or I should start praying for some ANNIYAN to arrive to do away with these people....
*surviving me*
Post script:
The above written is not to hurt anyone's feeling. The above picture is taken in the exhibition - display of clothes of women worn during sexual harassment. To have a look at the Blank - Noise blog, visit
www.blanknoiseproject.blogspot.com
