When the Moral Police Comes Knocking

Indian society has not evolved much in terms of how women are perceived. They still remain ostensibly the chalices of chastity, must congregate with men only once betrothed, dress as a lady would and must not consume alcohol. If a woman adheres to all these tenets, perhaps she will be excused moral scrutiny. However if this “moral code” is broken, which it often is, all hell breaks lose.

The shocking episode of a young girl being repeatedly slapped by a policeman in Ghaziabad police station for drinking in a car with her “male friend” speaks to this very issue.

The contention is not that anyone should be pardoned for doing something wrong, but the double standards prevalent in the Indian society.

Why must men who drink alcohol and women who drink alcohol be perceived differently? Why is it that only the woman is the one who is subjected to moral scrutiny after having been found in a “compromising position” with her friend? For ages, the flag of virtue has been handed to women to uphold, anytime a transgression is made which is deemed unacceptable by the society, women are lambasted by the police and anyone in the general milieu ranging from heads of women commissions to politically incorrect politicians.

In the end, it boils down to the clothes a girl/woman is wearing (revealing), the company she keeps (mostly men), the substances she consumes (cigarettes and alcohol) and the attitude she displays (brazen). These signals are enough for the police and even the society at large to deem a woman a whore, unsuitable for marriage, and comparable to male offenders who probably murdered someone.

As more women enter the workforce in urban areas, and go on to exert their independence, will the society come to terms with the fact that there is no moral script a woman must adhere to more than a man should? I fear that this day is not yet here.  Mostly because the people who are here to protect us: namely the police, cannot offer protection to women that they need from the perversions our society have created.

If a woman is accosted by a man who molests her, and let’s say in the odd chance she does report it to the unwelcoming police that man the police stations, she has to go through a harrowing experience by answering questions and being second guessed if it really was a case of molestation or perhaps the gentleman’s hand grazed her bosom by “accident”. Of course, if the woman is dressed in what the police deem as provocative (can be anything from jeans to shorts), then it could possibly be something she invited upon herself. How can then, deterrents knowing the reaction of police, to their leering advances, ever be stopped? Of course this is only the preventive side of the conundrum.

On a remedial side, however, much can be done, but remains hanging by a thread. Changing gender stereotypes would be a good place to start. Allowing daughters the same freedom as sons, encouraging boys to respect women, and encouraging portrayal of women in cinemas that goes beyond the sexy item number (how many male actors do item numbers?) and indeed some more gumption on the side of all women, self included, to question the disparity that screams in our faces all day, all night (particularly at night).