The White Women Burden

Being a foreigner in India is not always easy, especially not if you are a single white female. During my stay in India I have to face several forms of harassment, which varies from ‘innocent’ staring and screaming sexual related words to following and touching me. It does not matter whether I was in the rural parts of Maharashtra, the capital New Delhi or in the expat neighborhood of Pune, wearing a traditional Kurta or a tank top with jeans; it does not make a difference. You need to be alert for hands and eyes all the time.

The solution in Loni – the village where I was studying- for female eve teasing is easy: girls are not allowed to be out of their hostel after 9 pm, something that also tends to ‘solve’ the problem in Delhi. However, boys can be out all night. So, instead of punishing the perpetrators, women need to stay in! After 2 months in Delhi I could not deal with the ongoing harassment anymore and left for Pune. It is not just me; Delhi is famous for being dangerous for women, as research showed:

‘ ( …) 85.4 percent of the women 87 percent of the men and 93 percent of the common witnesses said that sexual harassment was "rampant" in public places and that this was the single most important factor that made Delhi an unsafe city.' (http://www.indiatogether.org/2010/aug/ksh-harass.htm)

The longer I stay in India, the more I realize that gender inequality and violence against women cannot be ended by only empowering women. Focusing on women again only emphasizes that they should change their behavior, not men. As Gauri Shendge - a young woman from Khadki Bazaar community in Pune – said:

‘If a man harasses us on street our parents tell us to look down, ignore it or take a different route. I like your approach – you ask the men to stop harassing us.’

However, changing the opinion, view and behavior of men towards women is highly important to fight gender based violence as: ‘65 percent of Indian men surveyed said they believe there are times that women deserve to be beaten.‘ (http://www.icrw.org/media/news/gender-equality-indian-mens-attitudes-complex)

When I came across ECF I was very happy that finally an organization was aiming to engage men to end violence against women. I gave up my former job and joined ECF as a volunteer. ECF trains boys in low income communities in and around Pune. Whenever I come to visit the communities I am happy to see the way boys are involving their peers in the program, their motivation for fighting gender inequality and the positive feedback we receive from their mothers. Change should come from males as well as females and more and more organizations should start to engage men; so both genders will work on this cause together!