Addressing sexual harassment in the street

The three-day event, Redrawing Resistance, was conducted by U.S. Consulate General Chennai and the International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC), Chennai, and Department of Psychology, Women’s Christian College, at Lalit Kala Akademi. 

The event drew to a close with an interactive talk titled Let’s Oorsuthify, where the people shared their stories of harassment in the street as well as examined the cultural, structural, societal and institutional barriers that prevent women from accessing public spaces safely. 

Rashmi Singh, Project Coordinator at PCVC, said apart from domestic abuse, women are also subject to violence which happens in public spaces – like offices or buses or even the street. “To address this, we had a group of young people from different colleges for a two-day workshop. The first day focussed on understanding why men behave the way they do towards women. 

On the second day, we gave them art supplies and space to express how public harassment made them feel. We need more forums to share instances of sexual abuse and create awareness,” she said. Aparna Ram, a social worker, said opening up about abuse, even to family members, is quite difficult. 

“Speaking about the abuse is hard and even our friends and family will ask us to modify our time or mode of transport or what we wear. This is when I feel my emotions are invalidated. We are made to feel that we are somewhere at fault. There is a lack of comfortable atmosphere, when speaking about abuse. We need to reach out and create an open space where women can talk about the abuse, without being made to feel guilty about it,” she stressed. 

Dr Vasantha Kumari, who creates awareness about sexual harassment among corporate employees, said, “We need to involve men too in this conversation. When we reach out to men in organisations, most of them are not even aware that their actions are viewed as sexual harassment.” Another participant, Lakshmi Mukund, a mother, pointed out that we need to tell our sons too about right and wrong behaviour. 

“Girl children are taught about what is good and bad touch but as the mother of a son, I need to tell him what behaviour is acceptable and what is not. Every mother has a role to play and teach her son to respect women,” she said.