The Ugly Truth of 'Eve-Teasing' in India
Two girls fully dressed in their school uniform - tunics, salwar bottoms and scarves - rode their motorbikes on a near empty street in broad daylight, where they were harassed. Two men on a motorbike overtake them and one of them pulls away the scarf of one of the girls. Immediately, she loses her balance and her cycle moves right and collides with a second motorbike coming from behind. As she and the riders fall on the road, the 17-year-old is run over by a third motorbike coming from the opposite direction.
The ugly roots of this event lies within the fact that two fully grown men even had the thought of eve-teasing two minors. In fact, the Supreme Court of India had tagged the word 'eve-teasing' "deeply problematic". Some women activists even questioned the fact that the news reported the incident to be 'eve-teasing'. Instead, the court urges people to use the term "street sexual harassment". As a result of the street sexual harassment on these teenagers, they lost their lives, their futures and their potential dreams. In reality, even if these girls had survived the attack, society would not refrain from labelling these girls and potentially scaring their self-esteem and dignity.
In any case, even if the girls weren't injured at all, street sexual harassment or 'eve-teasing' should not be under toned into making it the girl's problem or fault. This viral case surely raises the question of 'If the girls hadn't lost their lives due to the street sexual harassment, would their case even be noticed?'. In a country where this 'eve-teasing' happens to every woman, will there ever come a time where we don’t need "viral content" to notice the ugly truths of the society we have made?
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