The SHE Teams is an important initiative for the security of women but the language used while policing is problematic and, at times, even misogynistic.
These are the observations noted in a research paper ‘Policing Responses to Crime Against Women: Unpacking the logic of Cyberabad’s SHE Teams’ published in the journal Feminist Media Studies. The paper was authored by Usha Raman, professor of the Department of Communication, University of Hyderabad (UoH) and Amulya Kommaraju, a research scholar, also from the university.
The authors analysed the language used by SHE teams of both Hyderabad and Cyberabad Police Commissionerates, apart from speaking to senior and junior level police personnel.
The research paper notes that while the SHE Teams are ‘acknowledging’ and recognising lesser reported forms or harassment which women face, such as harassment at the workplace, there are traces of ‘misogyny in the vocabulary’.
“Referring to women as the fairer sex on public platforms, speaking in a way that continue to victimise and marginalise, and continuing to use the dismissing phrase ‘eve-teasing’ means that the terms of engagement have not really changed,” an excerpt from the study reads.
It also touches upon how it is inappropriate that the police refer to those involved in street harassment and the like as ‘boys’ instead of using stronger, more appropriate terms such as young miscreants.
The study notes that there is a bias towards counselling, instead of criminalising, of those who have been caught harassing women.
The authors pointed out that missing in the SHE Teams’ approach is the importance of a woman’s right to the city as equal citizens.
Explaining how language has an effect on policing Prof. Raman said, “The term ‘fairer sex’ reinforces the idea that a woman is delicate, weak and that her importance lies in her ornamental value. The emphasis should be on criminalising. Also, that this is unacceptable and there is no framework in which it can be excused.”
The concept of women’s right to the city is central to freedom and as an equal in a democratic set-up. “The pointing out of dangerous areas and hotspots and avoiding places at certain times of day or night, all of these become a deterrent to the feeling that the city is a rightful space which women can occupy. Emphasis should be on making spaces safer than discouraging movement,” Prof. Raman said.
