Kriti Khatri, Nepal, SSH Blog Correspondent
The issue of street harassment is global irrespective of the society. Everywhere, girls are well acquainted with the street activities like eve teasing, whistling, kissing sounds, physical gestures and to worst, verbal assault, sexual abuses, attempted rape and even murder. While the worst cases like rape and murder make big news, other activities remains not talked about.
Activities like eve teasing, whistling, catcalls or simple touching are never considered a big crime. These are daily things that happen, girls accept it as daily experience and at most they will try to change their route to avoid it. And our society takes it as a natural thing between girls and boys as if men have birth right to tease girls because they are men. The issue of street harassment is taken as a simple matter of “boys and girls things”. But is it just a matter of a boy and girl thing?
It would be, if it was limited to healthy flirting, which intimates people in a good way. But when any behavioral conducts in street becomes intolerable and uncomfortable to the bearer, it is harassment. There are examples of such “boys and girls things” in street impacting a girl’s life forever. Such harassment puts the victims on lifelong consequences.
Most girls who are victimized of continuous street harassment lack self confidence and self esteem which hampers their social development. In fact, while a girl gets victimized of sexual abuses in street, she develops negative perception about adolescence and her sexuality. Many girls dislike their body just because they get to hear abusive comments in the street. For girls with obesity or other physical misshape, street harassment is prime reason to feel less confident and anxiety.
In most traditional society, street harassment is the reason why girls don’t carry themselves alone in the street. Girls take any male partner either family member or friend when they need to go somewhere. Now with such habits, will girls ever get to be independent?
The impact of street harassment is known to everyone. But our society always holds its quietude in this matter. We only raise voice when some major incidents like rape occur. But had the rapist been stopped when he started catcalling girls, or punished for street harassment cases earlier, the incidents like rape might not have happen. No one foresee street harassment as the starting of such harasser becoming a rapist or a murder in future. Never have we discussed the issue of street harassment as crime.
Acknowledging how the issue of street harassment is discarded from social justice perspective, young girls in Nepal have initiated a social campaign against street harassment. The issue of street harassment is as much common to Nepalese street as it is elsewhere. Nepali streets are still consider safer in a perspective that not many women have reportedly faced severe street harassment incidents. But it is considered so because not many cases have been reported in legal documenting. The daily or so to say “naturally” taken cases like eve teasing, catcalls and sexual gesture is common in most streets of the capital city and to other metro towns of Nepal.
The organization called Astitwa foundation, founded by young girls has been addressing the issue and have pulled local authorities into the project. Astitwa foundation has approached Nepal police and Metro Police unit to take significant action against street harasser. The organization is in its early phase of the campaign in which sticker with public awareness messages against street harassment are being posted to public vehicles and public places. After Astitwa’s effort Nepal police also has shown keen interest in developing strategy to control such activities in street which hampers girls/women daily life and independency. The organization has also been able to provide justice to some severe cases of street harassment and Nepal police has take action against the doer.
Like Astitwa, many other organization are also raising their voices against street harassment globally. It can be an individual attempt or organizational, the need here is to conjointly work to stop street harassment activities. It is high time that our society and civil institution consider street harassment as an offend-able crime.
Societal silence towards street harassment is what exacerbates the situations. Whatever legal provisions are made to address the issue of street harassment, more meaningful will be the social concept and understanding of the issue being non forgivable act. Our society needs to discourage such activities by strictly acting against such inhumane act in public. Our society needs to accept street harassment as a hindrance to gender equality and women independence. We need to address it as a serious issue against women freedom and equality. For which, we need to break the silence and act upon it as a social crime.
Kriti Khatri is student of MSc chemistry. She is engaged in different social organization in Nepal and currently she is working on anti-street harassment issues with the Astitwa Foundation. Find more of her writing on her blog.
