Survey & Analysis by Aidhi Malik.
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The responses above are direct quotes from students and staff of the school.
This article is based on a survey conducted by the team.
Sample size: 191
Female - 60.2%
Male - 39.8%
Average age - 15.5 years
As part of research for this article, I frequently encountered an indifferent this-doesn't-affect-me attitude. I found out that many people were not only oblivious, but they blatantly denied the existence of such a problem. Guess what? These problems exist, and they exist in our immediate community. Here's what we found:
CATCALLING = HARASSMENT? WHAT?
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Focus on the reds.
83.5% of girls and women said that they experience catcalling, leching, or other untoward gestures to at least some extent in their lives, yet 72.2% of them believe that they have never been harassed.
This is unsurprising. Catcalling and other “harmless” forms of harassment are so very common that instead of recognising them as serious problems, many think of them as just things to deal with and get on. On surface of it, no real harm has been done. Both parties are unscathed, there wasn't any physical contact. They probably won’t even ever see each other again. Life, nuisance, life.
Except that it isn’t just a nuisance. Catcalling is a form of sexual harassment. It involves a person consciously indulging in an act of aggression, specifically aimed at a female, to make her uncomfortable. There is no purpose behind the action, except to harass. Sadly, this is so prevalent that it has become a “normal” part of life.
Or has it?
It certainly has been brushed aside, pushed to the back of our brains--along with the innumerable news reports of rape, long, leering stares, and slightly offensive jokes (It's a joke. Jeez). But it still begs the question- have we really grown apathetic to these instances or do we internalize them? If we do, then to what extent?
STRANGER DANGER
📷Women & Girls📷Men & Boys
Why would you feel uncomfortable, if at all, about being alone with an unarmed stranger of the opposite gender for a prolonged period of time in an isolated space?(It is a mouthful.)
It turns out that, in general, girls and women perceive a threat to their safety when the words ‘stranger of the opposite gender’ are thrown at them. Boys and men do not. Further, in response to how comfortable the respondent be in the situation (0 being ‘very comfortable’ and 10 being ‘would avoid at all costs’) the average answer for males was 4.432 and for females it was 7.147. This is clear evidence that the (many, many) instances of aggression--big or small, news or in real life--females come across are, indeed, internalized. And they are internalized to an extent that makes them not only associate an unknown male with danger, but also compels them to think that the person needs to be avoided, with steps taken from their side.
We have established that, more often than not, girls and women experience some form of fear regarding their safety. How does this affect their behavior?
IT'S 9 O CLOCK, CINDERELLA
But even Cinderella had time till midnight, more than what even males now believe themselves to have. We asked in the survey after what time does the respondent believe leaving the house is unsafe and averaged the answers. Here is what we found:
Females - 8:52 PM
Males - 10:22 PM
This might be obvious, late nights are unsafe for both genders. But, girls and women believe they need to be inside their houses one and a half hours before boys and men do. Both females and males would take precautions about being out at night, but females seem to have to restrict themselves more.
The implications are far ranging. This will affect how long women can work in comparison to their male peers, what jobs they feel that they should opt for, till what time they can be out with friends, etc.
I THINK, THEREFORE I AM.
📷Women & Girls📷Men & Boys
93% of females believe that they are at some disadvantage in terms of safety because of their gender, as compared to only 18.7% of males who share that belief. This means that a majority of females identify their gender as a disadvantage. “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired."
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We are angry. We are frustrated. 74.6% of us, at least.
As represented graphically, most of the respondents feel uncomfortable by instances of rape. It is clear that people recognize that the current scenario is far from perfect, and want it to change. Why is it then that when a 13 year old tells her parents that she was catcalled they don’t “know what to do… so they just let it be” and is advised to “avoid those people” and a person who was assaulted by her own uncle feels that she hasn’t “got the courage to share it with [her] parents”?
Are the adults in our life prepared enough to deal with these instances? Are we?
Considering that we are the most shielded and elevated section of India, the statistics that we've gathered provide only a small glimpse into the pervasiveness of this problem.
UNDER THE CARPET
Many of the respondents did not benefit from sharing their stories with their parents and friends. Do we fully comprehend the consequence of such unawareness in dealing with assault cases? If survivors are speaking up about their experiences with sexual assault and trusting us enough to open up, we must learn how to support them. We need to stop people from unwittingly blaming the victim and trivialising harassment.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
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If you want to help dismantle this pervasive rape culture, there is a lot you can do. You can start by standing up against locker room talk. You can stop tolerating and normalising such comments on social media posts:
📷Instagram comments📷
We don't have to teach men to be aggressive and conform to a narrow definition of masculinity. We don't have to teach women to be obsequious.
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And maybe we can stop sharing these memes-->📷
WHAT CAN THE SCHOOL DO?
1) Create safe spaces:
The school can offer a place of refuge to assault and harassment victims by creating a cell to help them deal with their experiences.
2) Educate:
Our textbooks and conversations at school don't touch these topics at all. Is this not more important than teaching us how to write a letter for placing an order? There exists a wealth of research that the school authorities can use to train students and especially teachers that can teach them how to approach cases of assault and harassment. Workshops too can be organised on consent education.
According to our survey, victims to such crimes are mostly females- but that does not imply males don’t experience assault or harassment. It’s important men get the exact same support we offer to women in such situations instead of being expected to hide behind their “masculinity” shield and overbearing manlihood.
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