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Trishla Chaudhury Language & Culture - India Professor Yajnik April 19th, 2015

Rape Culture in India

Since the infamous 2012 gang rape in New Delhi rape culture has become one of the biggest concerns of the country. The disrespect for women is deeply rooted in the culture and today’s society. Old traditions like acid throwing, and sati have been passed down through generations as customs. But it is this type of thinking that hinders the society and makes men believe that they can do whatever they like without any consequences. For the longest time the rape culture has been overlooked and men are getting away with treating women than they treat animals. Women have always been the second class citizen with assigned roles of being the ‘daughter, wife and mother.’ Their lives revolve around serving men or being properties of men that go from their father’s and husband’s house. While the times have improved the gender gap is still severe. There are 940 women to every 1000 men, 35% of women are illiterate, 71% of women don’t work, 47% of girls are married before the age of 18, 1 dowry death every 77 minutes, approximately 2 million baby girls are killed every year and 2 women are raped every hour. The statistics are just a mere view of the what the women horrendous treatment and experiences that they must go through. India is society of chauvinistic men that have been brought up to believe that women aren’t equal to them. Growing up a boy gets a full glass of milk because he needs the strength and the girl gets half a glass only. It’s the simple gender disparities that they see growing up that makes them believe they are the superior gender. To men women were the dumber gender and inferior gender. They grow up to believe that women should just sit at home and do everything that a man says. It is this view that the society has given men and it is this view that is the biggest issue. Women just don’t get enough respect. It’s this demeaning culture that makes men believe they can do whatever they want to a women. Women are basically sex objects and our main purpose is to fulfill a man's every wish. To me the lack of the education is probably the biggest mistake that the Indian society is making when it comes to women’s rights. Not having the basic knowledge keeps the person closed off from everything around them. They have no idea what is right or wrong and no idea when they are treated poorly. Women being withheld from education and being put in that little box of being a daughter, a wife and a mother is what is paralyzing women. It is raising women in the society to be hindered physically, emotionally, psychologically and economically. They don’t have a voice of their own and even if they do it is continuously being shut down and looked down upon. How can someone ask for their rights when she doesn’t even know what being done to her is wrong? The main key is to give the voice back to these people and make awareness of what is happening to them is wrong. A lot of the problems can been seen in the documentary ‘India’s Daughter’ that just came out of the 2012 gang rape. The rapist is seen actually saying that she should have just taken the rape, fight back is why we did it worse. The whole view of the rapist throughout can be seen as no remorse at all, and blaming the girl for everything as a way of justifying what he did was right. The girl shouldn’t be out that late, the girl shouldn’t with a boy, and the girl shouldn’t have just done what we said. Just because he was the name does not give him a right over any girl, she is not his property and he should not be treating her like a sex object. However that was not the most shocking part of the documentary. The most absurd things were what the educated lawyers were saying. One of the lawyers talked about holding girls in their hand and making sure they don’t go out of control. He also mentioned that the Indian culture is just no place for women that is why they have to kept controlled. The other lawyer also justified the rape by saying the girls shouldn’t be out that late with a boy and then further went on to say that if any girl in his family would ever put his reputation down like that he would burn them alive in front of everyone. The second lawyer was obviously more concerned about his reputation than if someone in his family was raped. The entire mentality and view of the documentary is so eye opening as how men really see women in India. There has been speculation that they said these things because they are defending the rapists and it is their job. But I don’t think there is any way a person who respects women would ever considering saying what they did. The problem is that men have had all the power for far too long now. They care just about themselves. Women just don’t get enough respect. And it’s that demeaning culture that makes men believe they can do whatever they want to a women. Women are basically sex objects and our main purpose is to fulfill a mans every wish.

Sources Ghuge, Sharmila. "Violence Against Women In India: It's Causes and Consequences: A Human Rights Perspective." Asia Pacific Journal of Management & Entrepreneurship Research 1.1 (2012): 82-88. Prabakaran, M. "Women and Human Rights." International Journal of Organizational Behavior and Management Perspective 3.2 (2014): 979-83. Udwin, Leslee. “India’s Daughter.” Assassin Films. 4 March 2015. []