Violence Against Women

यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवता:

This verse of Sanskrit depicts the earth-shattering role of women in Indian society. But as per the

current scenario, this verse seems quite ironical.
Women have been the most vulnerable and exploited segment in every age, time place and society.
They have been since ages the victims of humiliation, torture exploitation and violence. Violence
does not mean physically harming someone, it can be mental, psychological and emotional as well.
Even the intent of causing harm and injury to someone is considered as an act of violence. Now let’s

hit the nail on the head.

Violence against women can be categorized under the broad headings of:
• Criminal violence or rape
• Domestic violence including dowry deaths, sexual abuse etc.
• Social violence which includes eve teasing, refusing of share to the property to women or
harassing a woman for any other cause.

Harassing women is like killing the goose that lays golden eggs. Considering the case of violence
against women we see that most of the time women who feel helpless, depressed, have a poor self-
image, whose husband is alcoholic or who lack social interaction skills are easily accessible to
violence and are victims of it. In fact, women are abused and victimized mostly by the men they
know.
A study reveals that 61 % of women are abused by their own family members and 39 % by
strangers.This reveals that they are not even safe at home. These situations are only responsible for

forcing women to lead cat’s and dog’s life.
Now let the cat out of the bag. according to a survey of 2014-2016 crime rate against women have
been constantly increasing every year since 2008. Broadly speaking there are about 11,000 cases of
rape, 21,000 cases of molestation, 20,000 cases of tortures, 10,000 of eve-teasing and 5000 of dowry

deaths are being reported every year. The statistics are alarming and this shows how the situation is

going from bad to worse. One must remember that these are only reported cases. There are a host
of other instances of violence which go unreported due to fear of further violence, social stigma or

even death.

It is ironical that in a land where goddess is worshipped, at that land only crime against women is
very high.
Let bygone , be bygone

With time the society is awaking to its responsibility towards women. If we want to stop crimes
against women, we must first educate our children. The age-old concept of a women's destiny or
naseeb has to be changed. This can only be done by giving them their sense of dignity which they have lost over the ages and by making them aware of their rights.