A STUDY ON WOMEN SAFETY AND SECURITY AND
NEED FOR SELF DEFENSE TRAINING FOR THE WOMEN CONDUCTED AT EDAYAPPURAM LOCALITY OF KEEZHMADU PANCHAYATH
vishnupriya c s,M E S training college edathala
The
particular work aims to find out whether women are safe in our society and the
extent to which they are facing sexual harassments. It also try to find out
whether the existing system of punishments are satisfactory and also infer the
role of training programmes for women safety. The major findings of the study
suggest that most of the participants have faced such problems in the society
and they are not satisfied in the current punishment systems. They also
responded positively about the need of self defence programme for women.
Introduction
Women
in India-a better half of Indian society, today, are becoming the most
vulnerable section as far as their safety and security is concerned. When we
turn the pages of a newspaper, we come across many headlines reporting cases of
sexual assault, molestation, sexual harassment, rapes, trafficking, ill
treatment of women in houses, violence against women in remote areas etc. This certainly implies that there has been an
increasing trend of such sexual overdrives in present generation.
Our supreme law of land i.e. our Indian Constitution has envisaged a
dream of true social, economic and political democracy which guarantees the
rich and moral principles of equality (of status, opportunity, law) for our
citizens but this has not yet been fully realized. Still our better halves are
unsafe and unsecure towards the realization of freedom and liberty. It's
unbearable to imagine the plight of women who are sufferers of such crimes.
It's a jolt on the confidence of the women, of society and on our judicial
system.
But let us also look to the other face
of the coin. Since only ensuring a strict legal system may also prove to be
sometime oppressive as the agencies enforcing the acts in strict sense may
violate tenets of human rights which is also not acceptable. Hence a balance is
required to be kept with while implementation also.So far we have dealt with
the requirement of stringer laws, legal and administrative system to deal with
such sexual overdrive. But it requires further delving into the matter.We all
know that India has been a land following various social customs, traditions
and certain sets of religious beliefs. These customs has a deep rooted place in
the core of our minds and hearts of every people of India which has defined our
lifestyle, our thoughts, our expressions and our beliefs be it man or a woman.
This has given to the males, the feeling of masculinity in every aspect of
their acts and thoughts.Indian males have thus perceived themselves as
physically, mentally superior than their counterparts. Indian women also have
accepted to treat their males as superior..Other instance can be seen in
parents preferring male child over female. In every aspect of the life, women
are denied or given less preference over male whether it is for giving
education or access to health care. They are always required to be within their
limitations and the male counterparts have freedom in this regard. This system
thus gives a feeling in male that they are superior and hence dominate over
women. This instills in male a sense of hatred against women if they see a
woman crossing their limitations.
Number of women heading the
households in India is found decreased though female literacy rate is still
less than male literacy rate. Urban girls are nearly equal in education like
boys however in the rural areas there is still a big gap. On the other hand,
some Indian states (like Kerala and Mizoram) have achieved universal female
literacy. So, women in such states have high social and economic status. Women literacy
rate in India is still less because of the inadequate school facilities,
sanitary facilities, increasing crimes against women, shortage of female
teachers, gender discrimination in the society, etc. According to the
statistics of 2015, it is found that women (above 15 years or older) literacy
rate is 60.6% whereas male literacy rate is 81.3%.
The Kerala Police
deployed three women patrol teams, called Pink Patrol, in
Thiruvananthapuram. The teams, which have been formed to improve women's
security in the state, were launched by Kerala Chief Minister Pinari
Vijayan and his wife Kamala Vijayan.This Pink Beat team started functioning
from June 1. The members of the team are specially trained female officers, who
will be on duty from 8 am to 7 pm. The teams will monitor security in public
transport buses, at bus stops, crowded areas, schools and places of worship.
City Police Commissioner G. Sparjan Kumar is supervising the
team. Recently, a remark made by Kerala bureaucrat and IPS officer
Rishiraj Singh was ridiculed by Keralites and caused embarrassment to the
government. He had said that any man who looks at a woman for more than 14
seconds would be booked. Pink Patrol cars fully fitted with modern
technological equipment to face any emergency, will have only women police
officers.
Background And Context Of Study
There is a big list of crimes against
women in India such as acid attack, child marriages, domestic violence,
forceful domestic work, child abuse, dowry deaths, female infanticide and
sex-selective abortions, child labour, honor killings, rape, sexual harassment,
trafficking, forced for prostitution, and many more
Objectives
Ø To analyse whether women are safe in
our society.
Ø To find out the extent to which
women are facing sexual harassements.
Ø
To
know how women take precautions against the harassments.
Ø To know whether the current system
of punishments are satisfactory in reducing the violence against women.
Ø To know about the need of defense
training programmes for women.
Methodology
Study about women safety is a descriptive come
analysis based.The study required both primary and secondary datas.Secondary
datas were collected from various books websites.The primary data was collected
through direct survey method conducted at sixteenth ward of Edayappuram
locality by questionnaire method.A total number of 25 samples were collected
for the purpose of study.The study covered a period of 11/11/2016-12/11/2016 and the relevant
information was collected.
Results and analysis
Objective 1:To analyse whether women
are safe in our society.
TABLE:1 Number of respondents who feel
insecure to travel at night
Opinion
|
Number of Respondents
|
Proportion
|
yes
|
24
|
96%
|
no
|
1
|
4%
|
Among the 25 respondents participated
in the survey 24 of them replied that they feel insecure to travel at night
time.Only one of them feels secure without any fear of attacks .That means 96%
shows their fear towards violence against women in our society.
FIGURE 1 showing the proportion of
women who feel insecure to travel during night
Objective 2:To find out the extent
to which women are facing sexual harassments
TABLE 2:Number of respondents who
faced sexual harassments
Category
|
Number
|
Physical
exposure by strangers
|
1
|
Obscene
calls
|
3
|
Unwanted
comments
|
6
|
From
the above table it is clear that 10 of the respondents faced sexual harassments
which includes physical exposure by
strangers,obscene calls and unwanted comments
FIGURE 2 showing the proportion of women who faced sexual
harassments
Objective 3:To know how women take
precautions against harrasments
Table 3:Number of respondents who
take precautions
Category
|
Number
|
Take
precautions
|
3
|
No
precautions
|
22
|
Only
3 of them are taking precautions and remaining three are not vigilant about the
sexual harassments in our society.
FIGURE 3 showing the proportion of women taking precautions
Objective 4:To know whether the
current punishment systems are satisfactory
Table
4:Number of respondents who express opinions on
current punishment system
Opinion
|
Number of respondents
|
Satisfactory
|
2
|
Not
satisfactory
|
23
|
Most
of the respondents have an opinion that the current punishment systems are not
satisfactory for decreasing the crimes against women.23 of them have such an
opinion and only 2 says that its satisfactory.
FIGURE 4 showing the proportion of respondents which shows
opinion on punishment systems
Objective 5:To know about the need
of self defense training
Table 5:Number of respondents who
express opinion on self defense training
Opinion
|
Number of respondents
|
Need
defense training
|
25
|
Not
needed
|
0
|
Among
the 25 respondents which selected for the study.all of them have the same
opinion that self defense training is essential for women in the present day
society.
FIGURE 5 showing proportion of respondents which shows
opinion on self defense training
Major Findings
Ø Most of the respondents who took
part in the study revealed that they have a feeling of insecurity in our
society
Ø Some of them revealed that they had
faced sexual harassments in one or other way
Ø Eventhough they are feeling insecure
most of them fails to take precautions against these harassments
Ø It’s noticabale that most of the
respondents are not satisfactory in the current punishment systems in our
society for crimes on women
Ø Every respondent responded
positively on the need for self defense training programmes for women
Conclusion
Rape,
molestation, kidnapping and murder are the most common forms of crime against
women in India. The women in India are also vulnerable to acid attacks and
eve-teasing. The mindset of the people, including the victim and the spectator,
is to ignore and just let it go. But, what we, as the responsible citizens of
an independent country, fail to realise is that these instances of harassment
can flare up into other bigger heinous crimes against women. And that is when
the importance of learning self-defence techniques for women is felt.Various
studies have shown that the criminals tend to choose their targets when they
(the potential victim) are unaware of the surroundings. Hence, it is time that
each woman became vigilant and totally aware of the surroundings.The women
should be aware of the strategies to be adopted under different adverse
circumstances.
References
International
Journal of Criminology and Sociological Theory, Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2009, Crimes against Women in
India: Analysis of Official Statistics.
Chandan Mukherjee, Preet Rustagi and N. Krishnaji,
Crime Against Women in India: A Statistical Review.Economic and Political Weekly,Vol. 36, No. 43 (Oct. 27 - Nov. 2, 2001), pp.
4070-4080,292-302 292 .
