“How it feels to be a woman in India”

For blogs in the past I covered cases of women and children in New Delhi, India. The first story was about a young woman gang raped and killed by a group of men on her way from the movie theater, and the other covered the cases of sexually abused children in New Delhi, India. Although both posts addressed different social issues seen in New Delhi among its women and children the underlining problem was the refined rights for both women and children. As I continue to analyze these current events on “Women current events around the world”, I can’t help but notice the commonality of lack of women’s rights for women, particularly in In many cities in India.  

Many are concerned for the well-being of the women in New Delhi. The crimes against women are sky high and often go unnoticed. Women are vulnerable to sexual harassment from men on a day-to-day activities. It is not uncommon for a woman to groped in public or even raped. Women typically are not allowed to voice their opinions with the men in their homes and certainly don’t have the right to “say no” in the streets of India. The chances of sexual assaults are so high for a woman that it is almost natural for a woman to take precautions before going out for drinks or even going to the grocery store.  Shreyasi Singh, the writer of “How it feels to be a woman in India”, states that she wouldn't dare walk the few hundred feet to the nearby coffee shop near her home after 8 p.m. “Even though there are wide, well-paved roads, it isn't a pleasant walk at any time of the day” she says. Too often, she doesn't feel like she can stand at a crossing in Delhi and hail a cab without hunching her shoulders in hopes that her chest will be a little less obvious. And almost reflexively when on public transport, invisible antennae go up all over her body ready to sense the slightest unwanted touch or sign of harassment.

The threat of harassment is so serious that she gets calls from her family every five minutes if she is not back at home after 10.p.m. Sadly, such experiences had become so much of a threat to woman’s daily lives there that many of them had stopped questioning the unfairness of how unsafe most of New Delhi’s cities are for them.

Delhi, for example, has been dubbed the rape capital of India, with 17 percent of reported cases taking place here in 2011 according to official numbers that are believed to grossly underestimate the problem). New Delhi is the world’s largest democracy, yet tens of millions of us are treated like second class citizens – last year, the World Economic Forum ranked India 105^th in the world in terms of economic opportunities and education for women. According to India’s most recent census, the literacy rate among women is about 65 percent, compared with more than 80 percent for men. New Delhi is a patriarchal society in which the man is the dominant power and women are powerless and constantly taken advantage of. 

Article Written By:Shreyasi Singh :

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/04/how-it-feels-to-be-a-woman-in-india/