The Mindset
Every one of us has, at some point of time come across the ‘decent dressing’ debate or rather been a part of it; either for it, against it or been just a listener. Post every rape case that happens in our country or elsewhere, this controversial idea of whether dressing decently could solve the issue of women being victimised in such heinous crimes, is always discussed upon.
For those filtered young minds, in their teens or early twenties who think the way that suits the present day and of course some other open minded men and women, it may be an utter saturnine thought. But for the others, it is more like a solution – “Dress in a salwar kameez and you won’t get raped”!
I must be forgiven by the ones giving such bizarre solutions, since I am a person who thinks at par with the former. Do the clothes really matter? ‘Yes’ says an aunt of mine, “You don’t attract dirty attention that way...” and I begin to think of the first ever rape case that must have taken place in India maybe centuries ago. Certainly, our Indian women dressed up in saree and salwar kameez back then. But still, the first rape happened.
From a December 2012 article that I had read on The Washington Post website, I learnt that in a 1996 survey of judges in India, 68 per cent of respondents supported the fact that provocative clothing is an invitation to rape. There hasn’t been much alteration in the thinking twenty years down the lane. Such an abstraction, en masse of blaming women for getting raped rather than pumping in effort to fetch justice for the victim, is what I believe, a big mistake.
A female figure has been considered an object or a commodity that gives pleasure from time infinite. My blood boils as I write such a sentence, because I am a woman myself. But the truth remains the truth and the truth is always bitter. Moreover, when a girl is raped, she is considered a blot on society, denied respect and forced to believe that she can never lead a normal life ahead.
If you thumb through internet archives which recite the infamous, tragic and shameful rape incident which shocked Manipal in 2013 or the December 2012 case of gang rape of the braveheart, the victims were adequately dressed, but in vain. It was fate that made them fall prey to the hands of such gross and ignoble men.
If today’s newspapers can spell headlines like ‘Rape of a three year old’ or similar events, where does the ‘dress code’ debate stand? I say, let the country’s women be imposed with a ‘salwar kameez’ dress code for a day, and I bet the number of rapes won’t change because we live in an environment that consists of many chauvinistic men.
Let alone the idea of provocative dressing, our country is famous for other notions too, some of them being, a rape victim can always compromise by marrying her betrayer, it is shameful to admit that you have been raped, the society can never accept a woman who has been raped or she can never find a groom. The list could go on.
A handful of us might object to such baseless viewpoints, but they do reflect the real outlook of most people even as of today.
Isn’t it time to look at it the holistic way? Are these questions that I raise; irrelevant, real or illusory? The answers may lie in the mindset. Changing it for 1.2 Billion people in the country is no protean task and the argument will still continue. The country may have developed, but it lacks edification. The mindset remains stagnant even as we dive in to the future.
