Has there been a day when you opened the newspaper in the morning and didn’t find a single news related to crime towards a woman? No, right? Crime against women include cases of rape, harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence. The cases of violence has been steadily increasing in our country and these crimes have been so normalized that we do not even attempt to read or inquire about them.
So what actually is the cause?
Patriarchy has been cited as the main cause of violence against women. A girl child is not educated in our country due to the strong bounds created by patriarchy, resulting in literacy coupled with low level of education making women more dependent on men for their survival. All this, in turn increases the domination of men over women.
Family factors also plays a great role in the crimes related to women. Witnessing a father beating the mother during childhood leads to perpetration of violence against his wife in adulthood. A child applies what he had been taught by his parents in the outer world.
The solution?
Education.
Education for both men and women. Education for the entire society. And education doesn’t mean learning textbooks and having a degree, education means knowledge of our entire society, knowledge of our rights and duties. Men needs to be taught that women are to be respected, to be treated an equal and not be a treated as a toy. On the other hand, women needs to be made aware of their rights, they need to learn the facts and the prevalence. We must strive for equality and together fight for the injustices done to women.