Irrespective of their social status, Malayali women suffer serious social offline consequences from cyber harassment, a survey report brought out by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), has found.
The report stated that they frequently suffered from depression and psychosomatic ailments with serious detrimental effect on studies, social interaction and work.
The survey ‘Walking on Eggshells in Cyberspace: A Report on Gender Justice, Law Enforcement, and Women’s Struggles and Negotiations in Malayali Cyberspace’ has been prepared by J. Devika and four others as part of a research project coordinated by IT for Change, Bengaluru, and supported by the Web Foundation.
Living in fear
The survey found that 43% of the surveyed had faced harassment, abuse, or unwanted behaviour when online that made them feel afraid, depressed, alone and/or angry. Their horrors ranged from living in constant fear of fake profiles and images circulated without consent even after they left Facebook, severe restrictions on mobility imposed by family and educational institutions, physical torture, curtailment of education and work opportunities, continuing threats, slut-shaming and exclusion from community activities, early marriage, and breakdown of marriages or engagements.
The qualitative data suggested that the victims ranged from upper middle class women who had entered prestigious institutions like IITs to lower middle class graduate students attending local colleges. Even empowered women with high-end jobs have to pay a huge toll, especially at work.
The report, based on mixed-method research in five prominent colleges in two major cities and a town, covered 305 respondents.
Women as tools
The survey found that the patriarchal logic of using women as tools to further their subordination was something that the respondents were aware of, even though the exact mode of resistance could vary depending on how they wanted to deal with it. “It is also true that the rhetoric of agency can be used precisely to reinforce women’s subordination, as it appears from the cyber assertions of the female cyber supporters against women’s entry to Sabarimala (be it #Readytowait or women supporters of namajapayatra ),” said the report.
The survey found that nearly 30% of the respondents who had faced harassment knew their harassers, and another 16% knew them in some cases. Out of 57 respondents, 53 said the harassers were family members, classmates, someone in one’s community, friends, ex-boyfriends, teachers, or acquaintances. Bullying about body image – weight, body shape, skin colour, and looks — was also rampant, according to the report.
