By Pallavi Kamat, Mumbai, India, SSH Correspondent

While people talk about and highlight street harassment, primarily amongst women, does anybody wonder about the reasons it happens?

One of the main reasons, according to me, is that women are considered the weaker sex. Men feel that they need to control women in order to show that they are powerful. And one of the ways they can do this is by harassing innocent and gullible women who are simply walking down the street. In fact, experts believe that warped social beliefs and psychological problems are responsible for men indulging in such harassment.

Unfortunately, instead of helping stop it, society tends to worsen the situation. When a woman is harassed, society tells her that she must definitely be at fault. Maybe she was wearing the wrong clothes or had stepped out at a wrong time. Or maybe she had ventured into an area where she should not have. This only encourages the men further.

In cities like Mumbai, it is often alleged (and rightly so) that the police do not take the street harassment complaints of women seriously enough to file an FIR. And passers-by try not to interfere fearing they will get unnecessarily caught in the legal rigmarole. In fact, in October-2011, two youngsters were stabbed to death for trying to stop some goons from harassing their girlfriends.

So, what can be done about this? Nothing? Are women destined to face street harassment and continue pretending as if nothing happened? Sadly, such questions lead to more questions. But, I am an eternal optimist. According to me, women need to come out and speak more against such instances. These need to be highlighted and not shoved under the carpet. Perpetrators of such acts should be named and shamed by citizens groups. This is the thinking behind the ‘Chappal Maarungi’ campaign [literally meaning to hit with a sandal/shoe].

Some experts are also seeking a change in the way cities are modelled in their bid to fight street harassment. Changes such as bright lights and wider pavements are some of the suggestions being considered in Mumbai.

Such solutions need to come from within local people and societies – an external person/organisation cannot provide better answers. Also, buy-in for such solutions needs to be obtained; one needs to emphasize that it is not a woman’s personal problem when she is harassed on the street but a social problem – one that needs to be taken seriously and dealt with like any other crime.

Pallavi is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a Commerce Graduate from the University of Mumbai, India, with around 12 years of experience working in the corporate sector. Follow her on Twitter, @pallavisms.

Kriti Khatri, Nepal, SSH Blog Correspondent

Some people who participate in disrespectful behaviors towards women in public spaces also commit severe crimes like rape, attempted rape and sexual violence.  How a person develops physiological enhancement to commit sexually oriented crime can be answered based on his moral boosting from past behaviors towards women. What he learns from his upbringing and from the society where women are objectified for their dressing, body images and social presence influence him to develop his way of understanding woman’s role as a person. Once a guy can pester a woman in public and no one takes any action to stop it, he may get encouraged to develop his culprit activities into more severe crimes.

Globally we have seen various forms of sexual violence against woman. We try enforcing hard legislation against the perpetrators  to ensure justice to survivors of sexual violence. However in the long run, what we need to consider is that if a person is discouraged from his harassing behavior in the first place, many violence incidents against women can be prevented. Anyone involving in activities like eve teasing, whistling etc, if discouraged to do so, he might not excel his activities. The growing environment and person’s upbringing has to do a lot to determine his social attitude. One who has seen women disrespected and treated as object will develop similar attitude towards the female gender. If a person is encouraged to respect women through social behaviors, then it will set moral code for every social component to treat women with respect and equality.

Today’s harasser might not turn to be a rapist always, but there is a chance. Our society have never taken street harassment as a serious crime. Even more, street harassment is not even listed as one  among the various “forms” of violence against women.

The impact of street harassment might be considered nominal in comparison to brutal rape and other physical violence; however, harassing activities impart long term consequences to women.  Moreover, street harassment activities are a big question mark to gender equality. How can it be a gender friendly society where women get easily victimized by any one in the street? She is abused verbally, physically and sexually as if she is an object. In such social trend, can true respect be ever experienced by women? Again, while we are trying to end violence cases against women in global scenario, can we avoid street harassment considering it as a common social pattern?

What I believe is that, without taking significant step with participatory social input to abolish harassing street behaviors towards women, respectful presence of women will never be possible in our society. A woman should be respected both inside and outside her house to ensure a gender friendly environment. True equality only comes when woman are treated with equal respect which is only possible when we ensure an environment of social justice.

Holding the same message, Atitwa foundation organized a wall painting themed on the slogan “Today’s Harasser, Tomorrow’s Rapist” in cooperation with National Alliance of Women Human Rights Defenders (NAWHRD) and 35 other NGOs working on gender issues. The program was organized as part of National Anti Rape campaign on the precious occasion of women’s day at March 8^th.The aim of the program was to raise awareness about how street harassment can be preliminary steps to all kinds of sexual violence against woman that occurs in public places.

With successful completion of the program, the campaign against street harassment has got more attention and support from the people. Such awareness campaigns is bound to make positive impact on our society which will help abolish street harassment.

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.