Being a woman is not easy and that too when you live in India. Because in India at every 20 minutes a girl is raped. Rape is a black spot in our country . It is a weapon men use to destroy a woman’s dignity and life. India has been ranked as the world most dangerous place for women tourists. The crime rate registered per lakh women population is 62.4 per cent in 2019, up from the58.8 per cent figure of 2018.The "Crimes in India -2019" report shows that crimes against women have gone up by 7.3 per cent last year. The country had recorded 3,78,236 cases of crimes against women in 2018. National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data indicate that over 30% of Indian women have been physically, sexually or emotionally abused by their husbands at some point in their lives. The recent global and Indian #Me Too movement has revealed that many Indian women have experienced sexual harassment or sexual assault at the workplaces and yet kept silent about it for years.
In 2020, between March 25 and May 31, 1,477 complaints of domestic violence were made by women. This 68-day period recorded more complaints than those received between March and May in the previous 10 years. The majority of Indian women who experience domestic violence do not share it with anybody or seek help. 86% women who experience domestic violence do not seek help in India. Informal sources (natal family followed by friends) are favoured sources of support and very few women report violence via institutional routes. It is yet another matter that justice is rare even when the matter gets into the institutional sector . Reporting is the first step towards ending the silence around domestic violence. It is also an act of resistance and an attempt to restore dignity to women . But this is not without its risks – ranging from a lack of acceptance by families, humiliation by the police, to retaliatory escalation of violence. The extent and type of support that a survivor of violence receives, including practical assistance for dealing with emotions, difficulties faced while trying for recovery from trauma and society’s reaction. The habit of blaming women even when they are the victims of violence, are the reasons for silence during violent physical, emotional ,mental and economic tortures. Another reason is their backward social economic, legal and political status resulting on extreme dependency on men. An analysis of facts and figures related to woman’s social, economic, legal and political status
Law has always been evinced as an important instrument to initiate social change in all democratic societies and India, in the post-independence era, is no exception to it. India has so many women centrist laws to protect their rights guaranteed by the Indian constitution. These are meant to protect their dignity, human rights and exploitation in any form. Women are expected to have legal awareness i.e., about the existence of women centric laws, their provisions , purpose of each law ,the recourse to them and the basic understanding of the functioning of our legal system . The legal awareness, the family support and the inner strength of women to face challenges of life Plus the NGOs support would encourage them to fight against any type of injustice especially the sexual assaults of different types. But unfortunately, even highly educated Indian women lack legal awareness in India .Then, we can imagine the position of marginalised women who are sexually assaulted increasingly in recent years. Hence, only the spread of legal literacy among women would act as an effective tool to combat gender injustice in any form.
