Nowadays, hardly a day goes by without reports of attacks on women and girls in public areas. Harassment outside schools and colleges is a familiar nightmare for female students, but in Delhi last year, dozens of young women were molested en masse by aspiring recruits to the police force who were gathering at an exam centre nearby. The new year this year was ushered in by reports of attacks on women in Mumbai and in Kerala, once considered to be places that were relatively safe for women moving around in public. In the Mumbai incident, the women were not even alone but were accompanied by their husbands and other male escorts. Apart from such cases of apparently random hooliganism, there are pre-planned and motivated assaults, such as acid attacks, stalking, and so on.

What these and other instances, including the vast majority that go unreported, show is that there are practically no places in our country that can be considered “safe” for women. This persistent sense of insecurity that follows a girl right from childhood all the way into maturity is a terrible burden on them and on their families. It is an extremely important part of the overall oppression of women in our society.

In India, the problem is compounded by the fact that those who are supposed to “protect” women – the police force – are themselves among the worst perpetrators of crimes against women. There are very few female victims of assault who would be so foolhardy as to go by themselves and seek help in a police thana or chowki. The experience usually is that, even if she is not subjected to assault again by thugs in uniform, she receives no help and is further humiliated. If the woman is from a working class or poor background, her reception at their hands is bound to be even worse. This character of the police force is a major factor in the persistence and spread of crimes against women. Frequently, calls are made to “tighten” the laws against violence on women, but when the implementation of laws is left in the hands of these same forces, then is it any wonder that they have no effect?

Apart from the character of the police force, the entire system is weighted against defence of the security of women. The laws and the judicial system make it extremely difficult for a woman who is victim of any kind of assault to get justice. Even if the attacker is caught, he is very often let out on bail, compounding the insecurity and terror experienced by the victim. Considering the number of such cases, it is extremely rare that the criminal receives the punishment that he deserves. As for the crimes committed by armed forces personnel against women, which is very prevalent in areas like the North East and Kashmir, they are completely outside the purview of the laws and courts.

As a result, the burden of protecting themselves is left to girls and women themselves, or to their immediate families. They must not move around in certain areas and at certain times, they must not go unaccompanied, they must dress only in a certain way, they must not look in the direction of a man, they must not retaliate, and so on. This situation is completely unacceptable! The freedom of women to move around in complete safety and dignity is their basic human right. It is the responsibility of society as a whole, and in particular of the state which has the organised force to prevent crimes against women from being committed.

One of the great achievements of socialist societies, where they were established, is that they were known for the safety guaranteed to women. This has been observed, experienced and remarked upon even by visitors. Millions of women in those societies used to go out from their homes every day, to their fields, workplaces, educational institutions, and other places. Crimes against them were extremely rare, and if they occurred at all, were dealt with immediately and severely. This was fundamentally due to the fact that the complete emancipation of women was taken up in all seriousness as part of the overall question of the emancipation of the toiling people from all forms of exploitation and oppression. The old brutalised police forces of the former ruling classes were done away with, and new organs of people's power, including new security forces drawn from among the people were instituted in their place. What this shows is that crimes against women are not something “natural”, something that “will always happen”, but an abomination rooted in an oppressive system that can and must be done away with.