The Indian Express has a good article featuring Blank Noise‘s efforts to raise awareness in India about the problem of street harassment by collecting clothing women were wearing while being harassed. Here’s an excerpt:

“We are told that the onus lies on us to prevent its occurrence. We are told to dress appropriately, to come back home on time, to not attract attention to ourselves. And the worst of all, we are expected to accept sexual harassment or forms of eve-teasing as a part and parcel of our societal culture,” says Mariya Salim, a Calcutta University student of human rights who is participating in the drive.

Besides acting as testimonies of eve-teasing all voluntarily donated garments exhibited at public places in Kolkata since last month, also serve as a sort of an outlet for the victims to purge their pent-up feelings.

Jasmeen Patheja, founder member of ‘Blank Noise’, a Bangalore-based volunteer led community arts collective, says it is a violation of a girl’s liberty when she has to think twice before going out of her house alone.

“Isn’t the perpetrator responsible for his own action irrespective of what time we go out on the roads wearing the kind of attire we want to,” she said.

Very true. Women who are harassed are not to blame, the men who harass them are! Learn more about the work Blank Noise is doing.