Navratri 2023: While Maa Kaalratri Signifies Fearlessness, Women's Safety Remains Compromised

On the seventh day of Navratri, devotees worship Goddess Kaalratri or Kalaratri. She is often referred to as Devi Mahatmya and Kali. The first mentions of her is found around 300 BCE.

Hindus consider her the fiercest form of Goddess Durga. A Tantric text from Odisha calls her Silpa Prakasha, which means she rules the nights. She represents fearlessness. According to legends, she destroyed Raktabija, a demon who had a boon to be born from a single drop of his blood. It made him inevitable. However, Kaali drank his blood and helped the world find relief from him.

While we praise Goddess Durga in this form, the safety of women remains compromised in India and around the world.

Women Are Unsafe

Apart from the overruling of abortion rights in the USA and rights being curbed in Afghanistan, there has been an increase in the number of crimes against women too. And India stands not far from the data.

A November 2022 survey conducted by YouGov showed that about 52% of Indian women in urban areas have reported feeling unsafe while going out alone at night. Around 26% of them said they feel anxious when walking in a certain area or even when they are with their partner, friend or family member at night. In fact, 18% of the surveyed women said they feel insecure when alone in the streets during the day as well.

There have been several cases reported when taxi drivers have misbehaved with female customers. Recently, several reports made headlines where men molested women in various airlines. We have read news of men self-pleasuring publicly in buses while looking at girls and women.

Whenever a woman is travelling alone at night, she makes sure to click a picture of her cab driver and share the live location with one of her friends, partner or family members. If a girl is out late, her family stays awake until she comes back home safely. Yet there is very limited amount of measures taken to ensure the safeguarding of females.

Women have abusers at home. Their husbands, fathers, brothers and relatives often turn out to be perpetrators. So, one can imagine the safety of women on the streets when they are not safe in their homes.

In fact, the National Commission of Women (NCW) reported in January 2023, that 2022 had the highest number of complaints of crimes against women since 2014. The department received about 31,000 grievances from aggrieved women last year. It was 30,864 in 2014.

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Gender-Based Violence On Rise

The only reason behind unsafe environments for women is gender-based violence and the lack of measures that can help prevent crimes against them. For example, in March 2023, the first phase of the Safe City Project in New Delhi would include setting up around 5,000 CCTVs in at least six districts of NCR. However, the question remains the same if it can help prevent crime?

Cameras can record the incident but cannot prevent it from happening. Therefore, we need actions to be taken that can ensure the safeguarding of women. We need a measure that protects girls and women. There is a lack of street lights which leads to more crimes.

We have not trained our sons to handle rejection. A few years back, a man killed a woman in broad daylight because she refused his advances.

The movie Chhapaak was a story of an acid-attack survivor. Starring Deepika Padukone, it showed how a man had the audacity to throw acid on Malti Agarwal’s face while she was walking on a busy street.

While promoting the film, Padukone along with other survivors visited shops in India to show how easy it was to get a bottle of acid without any restrictions. Nobody asks why one was buying something that has the potential to end a life.

In January, Swati Maliwal, Chief of the Delhi Commission of Women (DCW), was harassed and dragged by men in a car. Women are unsafe in India, irrespective of who they are.

During the celebration of Holi in March 2023, a video went viral where a Japanese tourist was molested by four men, including a minor. In the disguise of a festival, perpetrators harass women. In this case, they got arrested. In many cases, the survivors have reported not being able to recognise the person who misbehaved with them.

In 2020, India was ranked among countries labelled as the most unsafe and dangerous places for women. If you search, you will find many viral videos of female travellers reporting being harassed by men on the streets.

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What Can Be Done?

We have several laws in place to ensure the protection of women, yet the data on crimes against women outperform last year’s. We have to figure out where our measures are lacking.

We need to build strategies that can help girls and women feel secure, and CCTVs alone are not going to do it. We need to increase funding to the cause and work towards improving the rate of literacy and employment so that we build a society where women are considered equal to men.

We must have a robust system when it comes to filing FIR, preparing a charge sheet, conducting investigations and getting the criminal behind the bar in cases of harassment, molestation and other crimes against women.

Special investigation units and a speedy judiciary system are some other ways to ensure women are and feel safe. After all, safety is our birthright.