Women in the world have been subjected to heinous crimes for the longest time. Whether it was during wars, political agendas or cases where men have not been able to take rejection well, women have always borne the brunt for no fault of theirs and been soft targets for larger problems. According to the National Crime Records Bureau statistics, a woman is raped almost every 20 minutes in India.
Violence against women in Assam
Assam is one such state in our country with a higher crime rate against women than the national average. Over the last few years, many crimes have been recorded in Assam.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data states that Assam has reported the highest rate of crimes against women among all states and union territories from 2016 to 2019. These crimes included domestic violence, kidnapping and molestation.
In September this year, a 16-year-old in Silchar was gangaped and murdered, and her body was later disposed of in a river.
In the same month, a 14-year-old girl was murdered in the city’s Uzanbazar area by her cousin.
In another incident, a BA student in the Dhemaji district was attacked and murdered by her estranged boyfriend. The latter was a non-teaching staff at her college just because she rejected his marriage proposal.
The list of such crimes goes on and on. These are just 3 cases that happened in Assam over a span of few days. There are many more cases where women never report such incidents due to shame, threats or financial dependence on their perpetrators.
Causes for violence against women
The reasons for such crimes are gender stereotyping, objectification, the existing patriarchal structure of our society and lack of sex education in schools. From a young age girl are not empowered and allowed to reach their potential.
They have always been underestimated and undermined in comparison to their male counterparts. Most men in our country unfortunately are also not taught to be accountable for their actions from a young age which is where the string of problems is rooted.
Measures to reduce sexism, gender stereotyping and crimes against women
Sexism in our country is prevalent but resolvable. If we want to reduce crimes against women, we must change many things at the root level. Here are a few steps we can inoculate as individuals to create change:
- Educate the women around us.
- Equality is not just empty talk, and it requires interpretation, execution and exhibition.
- Educate youngsters about sex, sexual health and most importantly, consent.
- Making everyone accountable for their actions from their childhood.
- The final and the most crucial part of the change starts at home. It involves bringing up both the son and the daughter on an equal plane. Cooking and cleaning is not only the daughter’s domain. Teaching both genders all good things in life will eradicate gender biases across all walks of life.
