It is important to recognise different forms of violence against women such as marital rape, according to Vandana Mahajan, a Bangalore-based social activist.
She was speaking to The Hindu here on Sunday on the sidelines of a two-day symposium on ‘Men and boys for gender justice’ organised by EKTA Resource Centre for Women to work towards a gender-just society. “In several cases of marital rape, women do not come out in the open. Awareness should be created to help women understand that it should not be kept under wraps for fear of embarrassment,” she said. She also insisted that such forms of violence should be brought under a more stringent legal purview.
Ms. Mahajan said physical violence against women was the most dehumanising form among all. However, every other form of violence, even if subtle, also should be treated a criminal act.
“It is important to remove the moral and societal stigma attached to sexual abuse against women. The incidents should be treated as a mere matter of crime,” she said.
The symposium organised at the weekend saw academicians and social activists discussing gender roles and relations, and involving men in preventing violence against women. Men could use institutional power and take sustained and systematic efforts in families, communities and in society to end violence against women, it was suggested.
Bimla Chandrasekar, Director of EKTA, spoke on the growing efforts to involve boys and men in the prevention of violence against women. R. Sugantha, a faculty from the Centre for Women Studies, Bharathiyar University, Tiruchi, noted that most girl students in the institution were complacent and lack vision about future. “The situation was quite different about a decade ago. The students are unable to deal with family issues in several cases,” she said.
R. Kumaran, Assistant Professor of Sociology Department in Gandhigram University, Dindigul, said that it was important to study the understanding of masculinity to prevent violence against women.
