‘This Car Respects Women’ – Does Gender Sensitisation End Here?

Seeing the ‘This Car Respects Women’ stickers on cars in Kolkata made me question some basic notions about the idea of inclusivity and the gender sensitivity scenario in India. Why has the concept of equity in society been brought down to pasting stickers? It is a matter of gravity that requires reforms and education with immediate effect. The study of this situation needs to be started from gender sensitisation.

What Is Gender Sensitisation?

Gender sensitisation is an umbrella term that comprises multiple components, such as:

1. Raising awareness about the socio-cultural factors influencing and facilitating gender bias and marginalisation.
2. Empathetic understanding of issues faced by various genders. Breaking of established norms and stereotypes around genders such as assigning particular workload to specific genders
3. Raising awareness through various means for equality of all sexes.
4. It aims at dismantling the deeply entrenched system of discrimination and exclusion.

The Global Gender Gap Report released by the World Economic Forum is a report that exhibits the difference in opportunities and facilities (health, education, politics and economy) enjoyed by men and women in different countries.

Of the 156 countries that are polled, India ranked 140 in 2021. This brings home the immense gender divide in our nation and is in dire need of sensitisation programmes.

Gender Sensitisation Drive In India For Police And Cab Drivers

It is undeniable that women have increasingly become a vital force in its development. But this has also made them vulnerable and easy targets of hate crimes, violence and harassment. Representation is still meagre considering that the percentage of participation is not miraculously better.

Reckoning this trend, the Indian National Commission for Women has come forward with gender sensitisation drives in the Indian Police System and amongst drivers of various public transportations.

But, unfortunately, considering both these spheres have been excessively male-dominated over the years, numerous sexist and misogynistic stereotypes and practices have become ingrained in these systems.

For instance, the police system is often lagging when rapes and sexual harassment are lodged. As a result, women are discouraged from taking legal action and deprived of proper resources to take a case forward. Furthermore, the interrogation process and the custodial tenure have often been inappropriate.

Flouting fundamental human rights, violence, torture, and rapes have been made commonplace. The rampant issues of custodial rape were first brought into the limelight during the National Emergency when there were three chief cases of custodial rape that grabbed people’s attention –

Mathura Rape Case (1972), Rameeza Bee Rape Case (1978) and Maya Tyagi Rape Case (1980). These cases followed torture and rape of the women and deprivation of justice due to ‘lack of evidence.’

On the other hand, public transportation sees many sexual harassment cases daily. Ranging from inappropriate touching and cat-calling to rapes – public transit accounts for it all. The Nirbhaya Rape Case is a burning example of how Indian public transportation is in dire and immediate need of reforms.

Even though public transportation is a cheaper alternative for women belonging to not so affluent families, numerous women drop out of educational institutions or places of employment due to insecurity and lack of safety on the journey.

The most efficient method of doing this is a gender sensitisation drive that can raise awareness, increase accountability and the legitimacy of the systems by breaking the misogynistic social construct that trivialised these crimes.

This would help change their outlooks towards not only women co-workers but all marginalised gender groups in general. This drive should also aim to increase the public participation of people from all gender groups, which can also be expected to bring a reduction in the number of cases of sexual crimes against them.

Steps Taken Under Gender Sensitisation Drive

The first significant step taken under this drive was the education of the mass involved. This included detailed education and awareness about human rights, exploitation against women, sexual crimes scenario, various kinds of such crimes, statistics and intensive self-analysis.

This would make the people question existing belief systems by breaking the current thought process of people who always blame the victim and not the perpetrator. Furthermore, it aims to increase the number of female recruits to make it a safe space for women while simultaneously generating employment opportunities.

This module would urge police personnel to hold unbiased, extensive, logical and empathetic investigations. Furthermore, it instructed them to be legitimate resources and have a compassionate outlook while dealing with victims of abuse and violence.

On the other hand, the drive plans on making the cab drivers open about gender equality, providing a safe space for women to travel. This was done keeping in mind the numerous instances where women have been afraid to avail taxi services in fear of molestation.

What Is Being Done vs. What Needs To Be Done

The sensitisation drives have been undertaken in various cities of India like Kolkata, Bengaluru and New Delhi. For example, the Kolkata Police arranged for a gender sensitisation drive named ‘This Car Respects Women.’

Auto drivers were trained to deal with passengers, especially women and harassment of women in the public sphere. The auto-drivers attending the meet were given stickers saying ‘This Car Respects Women’ to stick on their vehicles.

The Delhi Police also arranged for a demonstration module by professors and lecturers from colleges in the area to train police personnel for dealing with women complaining about cases of violence and harassment against them.

Kerala is also set to start its gender sensitisation programmes that will educate the police force into becoming more gender-sensitive and empathetic to increase the safety of marginalised gender groups in the public sphere.

This was done keeping in view that there have been multiple cases in which women had been discouraged to approach law and were convinced into having simple settlements, overshadowing proper justice.

While these go a long way as the first step towards a more equitable society, it isn’t very likely to have proper, potent outcomes. More vigorous actions are required to establish a proper and fair environment welcoming changes in favour of development and equality. Pasting stickers can never be the ultimate power move to achieve the goal.

Administrative Changes For Gender Sensitisation

Education And Practical Application: The most basic yet the most enduring changes occur through the education system. The current education system has brought in numerous changes following the dynamic dimensions of the feminist movement.

But, facts and figures alone cannot change the rigid system. What is required is for the people to relate these points to reality and build an environment of gender sensitivity through these sensitisation modules.

Inclusion Of The Entire Gender Spectrum: While the effort put in by the authorities is commendable. It is aimed at the development of the condition of women. However, it does not mention the inclusion and development of other marginalised gender groups. This, too, needs to start from the fundamental level of knowledge acquisition in children.

They need to understand that there is more to the gender spectrum than just ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ and that they can form a very integral part of the workforce if provided with adequate opportunities.

Moreover, people who are open with their sexual orientation are treated with ridicule and, often, violence. Inclusion and encouragement to these marginalised sexual groups in the law and development of the country can eradicate the perpetual discrimination they have had to face.

Training Programmes For Women And Other Marginalised Genders: Training and awareness programmes need to be initiated on a much larger scale to encourage these historically marginalised and disparaged groups to degenerate the age-old stereotypes and be a force of change in society. Training them to acquire jobs and impart education in disadvantaged societies are ways to achieve these.

Strict Measures Within The Police System: While training programmes have been formulated for the police force, there are numerous instances still where the police become the facilitator of injustice. While the police system is expected to be a medium of achieving justice, the situation is toppled when they are the ones committing the crime.

Punishment of sexual offenders in our country has always been a challenging process. It becomes worse when the police against whom the case has been lodged as they get a freeway to destroy evidence and blackmail the victim into withdrawing cases.

There had been a familiar pattern of victim-blaming and sparing of the offenders in the three points mentioned above. There should be a strict system to hold the perpetrators of inequality accountable and with immediate actions.

Inclusive Administrative Changes: Changes in recruitment and engagement of workers in executive offices and the nation’s think tanks need to be more inclusive for all genders. The higher the participation rate of these groups, the more fair, empathetic and secure the laws will be as they will bring in their own experiences, thoughts and demands into the process of legislation and execution.

Conclusion

Accountability, legitimacy, empathy and awareness is key to bringing change in society. Not just on the part of the common people but also the administrative systems as they facilitate the transformation of existing laws. If equality gets legally enforceable, it becomes a requirement to adhere to it.

Because in case of their transgression, the individual will be held accountable by the court of law. This instills a sense of fear and accountability to adhere to the rule of law. No matter the government’s number of sensitisation drives to stop violence and inequality against marginalised gender groups, the most considerable portion of the responsibility lies on the people promoting these inequalities.

If these drives can promote that fundamental component, marginalised gender groups would get a free space to express themselves and contribute to constructive development on a much larger basis.

Note: The author is part of the Dec ’21 batch of the Writer’s Training Program.