SIN AND THE CITY

New schemes from political parties to woo women are fine but cases of violence against them are taking their toll across the state. Address them first...dear politicians

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: In Indian culture where women are revered as goddesses, recently reported crimes against women paint a scary picture of Bengaluru. On Tuesday, a 19-year old student was brutally murdered for rejecting advances of a married person.

Some days ago, a student of a private university college in the city was stabbed by her relative for declining his proposal. While the Karnataka government and opposition political parties are busy introducing new schemes for women empowerment, cases of violence against women are taking their toll of women's confidence across the state.

According to official data shared by the state police department, at least 15 women every day filed complaints relating to sexual harassment across the districts in the last year. It is revealed that the state police have recorded more than 5800 such cases in 2022.

Sources from police said that out of the total number, 1877 sexual harassment cases occurred in public places while 973 cases took place at private premises. Nine cases had taken place in public transport and the remaining cases were classified as occurring at other places.

However these are not the only reported cases against women in 2022. The total number of cases involving women victims in other cases stood at 15492, including 500 rape cases. The others include 2,843 which were those of cruelty by husbands, 15 murders for dowry, 241 immoral trafficking cases and 4,082 cyber-crime related cases, 166 cases of abetment to suicides and 432 other murder cases.

Shockingly in the last four years, more than 25000 complaints relating to sexual harassment have been reported in the city. This is despite there being fewer complaints reported during the pandemic and lockdowns. However, soon after the lockdown was lifted, the police claimed to have received a huge number of domestic violence complaints by women.

These are just reported cases; there are more cases which go unreported due to various hindrances. The statistics recently shared by the Bengaluru Police Commissioner CH Pratap Reddy, already show a 30 per cent rise in cases of crime against women and children compared to the 2022 reports.

Crimes against women and children include those registered under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, for dowry harassment, molestation and rape. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) portal, crime against women rose by 15% in 2021 across the country. And it is revealed that 31.8 percent of the reported cases involved either the husband or women's relatives.

Women rights activists and experts note that apart from unemployment, poverty and gender normatives, lack of legal education and knowledge had prevented the victims from getting police help in many situations.

Supreme Court Advocate NS Nappinai and founder of Cyber Saathi said, “From Draupadi's Vastraharan, we continue to blame the victim and anchor the crime to certain actions that the victim may have committed or done, and almost make it seem like she brought it upon herself,” she said.

Regarding cyber-crime cases, NS Nappinai said that often people assume that something done virtually is not physical. “If someone abuses you online, people say it doesn’t harm you. What are you really complaining about?

It is shocking to know that when victims try to file a complaint they still face resistances of various kinds. ''I want to clarify that the impact and the harm is as much via online if not more because these things reach much wider. When a woman faces sexual harassment that harms her substantially, physically and psychologically and when two people have it in a closed environment and then share it with an audience or go virtual, then they are exposing the victim to harm to her modesty,” she said.

Recalling one of her cases, she said, “A victim had told me once during an interview that when her video was circulated and every time anyone viewed it, she felt violated. The harm runs to several millions and billions which is much worse,” she added.