advertisement
(This story was first published on 8 March 2020. It has been republished from The Quint's archives to mark International Women's Day.)
Video Editor: Prashant Chauhan Camera: Sumit Badola & Abhishek Ranjan
Sexual harassment is an everyday reality for most Indian women.‘He tried to hit on my chest'. ‘He followed me daily’. ‘His stare made me really uncomfortable’. ‘Their comments made me feel humiliated’. Women from all facets of life face it – in home, at workplace, public transports and the worst affected are the women from lower strata of society, house helps, labourers, women at shelter homes. But isn’t it time that we change this ‘normal’ ? Because it isn’t.
The Quint got in touch with women from different walks of life who shared stories of sexual harassment they have faced. These stories highlight instances which are very common, harassment that women have to live with everyday. But that’s not it. These women spoke about how they retaliated, they gave it back to the harasser, let him know that he is making her feel uncomfortable, spoke out, shouted!
Staring, cat-calling, stalking, eve-teasing, any kind of sexual misconduct is not okay and that’s why it is very important for women to retaliate and call out.
Sanuara is a house-help, primary works include cleaning and washing clothes and utensils. She started working at the age of 15. Sanuara has been harassed multiple times by the men in the houses she works. Sometimes she retaliated and sometimes she just simply left the job but one thing she has always done is to let the harasser know that he has done wrong to her.
37-year-old Vineeta is an entrepreneur and like all the other women, she also had many instances to share. The one that has left a long-lasting trauma is when she was in high-school, someone used to call at the landline and just say that ‘Vineeta will be kidnapped’. The calls stopped after her family complained to the police but phone ringtone still scares Vineeta. But she is feisty when it comes to dealing with men who misbehave. She recalls the incident when a passerby tried to hit on her chest.
Vineeta says that she always calls out and makes noise whenever someone misbehaves with her and in her experience, public has always helped her. But privilege is such a thing that this ‘public’ doesn’t come out to help every woman. Take for example Sanuara’s case, she told us about the incidents when she has shouted and asked public for help and no one supported her.
Priyanka is a working professional who was harassed by two male coworkers who made her work life really difficult. It started with deleting her mails about the work she assigned to these men and graduated to these two men speaking behind her back to other colleagues and her immediate boss.
When she complained, Priyanka found out that the ICC in her organisation isn’t working. The members are no longer in the organisation. Leaving behind the whole fiasco was an easy choice for Priyanka but she made it a point to complain further, get an ICC reinstated and not let these two men go scot-free. The ICC was made after her constant complaints but the fight was far from won.
She wrote back to the department again and kept pressurising them. Finally, an investigation was conducted and those two men were asked to leave and Priyanka joined back on her own terms.
Rubina, 52, housewife says that most women get scared and don’t have the courage to slap. But we, women have to wear a brave face everyday and retaliate and fight back.
28-year-old, Surabhi Diwan, who is a lawyer by profession tells us that she has become more scared and a lot aware of the surroundings now.
While sitting in a cloakroom of a railway station, Surabhi asked a man to not stare at her because he was making her uncomfortable. In return the man started shouting at her saying that she isn’t beautiful enough that he will stare at her. There was a ruckus around, some men intervened and asked the man to leave. Before leaving he told Surabhi that it’s because of women like her that rapes have increased.
There is no surprise that these women had numerous instances of sexual harassment to share and this in itself speak volumes. We have to address sexual harassment otherwise the safety and welfare of Indian women will continue to be compromised.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)