Tags
Delhi rape incident, English Vinglish, eve-teasing, gender segregation in India, role of women in India
Last week’s airborne trek back to Bangalore allowed more than enough time to indulge in Lufthansa’s collection of bad foreign films and beloved American sitcoms. A single gem among the bunch however — the 2012 Bollywood hit English Vinglish. In the film, Shashi, a traditional “sari-clad” Indian homemaker and wife of an office-going modern man, goes to NYC to visit her sister. Insecure about her inability to speak English, for which she is ridiculed by her pre-teen daughter and well-educated husband, Shashi is pushed to the brink of frustration navigating Manhattan and impulsively enrolls in English classes. The film culminates a few weeks later when Shashi surprises her family with her new linguistic prowess, giving the toast of the evening_ in English_ at her niece’s wedding. In addition to the market potential of Shashi’s under-appreciated homemade Laddoos :P, English Vinglish could not better illustrate the socio-cultural complex and subservient role of the female in Indian society.
As I finished off the last of my smuggled German pastries and silently applauded Shashi for her courageous self-transformation, I turned to my stash of light reading. Nearly 3 weeks after the fatal gang rape of a 23-year old paramedic student on a public moving bus in Delhi, every global publication, the world over was still talking about it (today still in fact): “India’s Shame: A Brutal Rape…”, “Rape and Murder in Delhi“, “Sexual Violence in India: How long will the Media’s Interest Last?“. Are TIME, The Economist, and the International Herald Tribune justified in making famous Delhi’s favorite 6 rapists and was December 16th truly a “Turning Point” for India’s women”?
According to a 2011 global survey, India is the fourth most dangerous country in the world to be a woman, coming in only ahead of Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan. Among G20 Nations, India ranks last. Despite illegal ultrasounds, sex-selective abortion, and ancient dowry practices, India has an an ever-distorted sex ratio (914 girls to every 1,000 boys) with 50 million “missing” Indian girls over the past century due to female infanticide and foeticide. In addition to child labor, sex-trafficing, and child marriages, the UN’s human-rights chief considers sexual violence_ “eve-teasing” as it’s called here in India_ a “national problem”. With 1 conviction among Delhi’s 600 reported rape incidents last year, case investigations are rare and due justice rarer. Do you want the truth? The majority of sexual violence cases go unreported.
With impunity for sexual violence and age-old attitudes aside, gender divides and biases exist among Indian school children as young as 11 (and perhaps much younger). For instance, have them count off by 5’s so that there are 7 groups of 5 random students each. Present an activity that requires them to sit next to, talk to, or [goodness forbid] briefly hold hands in a circle with group members of the opposite sex. Turn your back for 1 minute and they will have silently and efficiently rearranged themselves into 7_ slightly less equal_ groups defined by a single gender. At Srinidhi School, this is how it works, grades 7 through 10, every single time.
After 6 months of living in India, it is somehow still a daily reality check that gender equality is not celebrated by a burgeoning economic superpower and the world’s largest democracy. With thousands of protestors, increased bus security, a media ban, and a new “fast track” court for women’s cases as of recent however, perhaps it won’t take a cultural revolution or national shift in attitude for things to change (only minute-by-minute media updates on the Delhi incident… :p). While the world awaits the verdict on the Delhi rapists and India’s commitment to female justice, I’ll be sweating in my scarf and long pants, sandwiched between sari-clad women at the front of the bus… in the designated “Ladies Only” section.