When stepping outside home feels like a warzone

I remember how about a decade ago, each morning I used to pick up my friend in Delhi from a bus-stand she came to midway. More often than not, she would come in a very bad mood and I would invariably find out after a while that the reason for her mood was how she was harassed/molested/touch inappropriately/followed in that 30 minute bus journey each time.

Cut to present-day Delhi. I was out all day with my sister 2 days ago and I tend to notice men around me when I'm with a woman. About 8/10 men we passed by first stared at her face, then at her breasts and about 2/10 turned around and also stared at her behind after passing us by.

And let us not excuse ourselves saying 'Ya, this is a Delhi-only thing'. Violence in a man's eyes is now an all-India, dare-I-say even a universal phenomenon. I also believe that if it were not for some lingering fear of the law and taboos, a lot more men would act out on their violence!

Most women have gotten used to us men's eyes but quite a few are still extremely uncomfortable. And if this is the condition in relatively rich and educated urban centres, I shudder to think how it must be elsewhere!

It must feel like a warzone for a woman to merely step outside her home. Evading landmines, gunfire and concealed snipers everywhere. At least in a true warzone, two nations are generally at war given some history of conflict but in the gender warzone, we are at war with women merely because they were born so!

No sloganeering or overnight magic will solve this! Prolonged and perseverant systemic inputs to educate citizens on gender-justice, stringent punishment to wrongdoers and intervention at various walks of life such as religion, marriage, families etc are needed to check this violence and brutality!