Indian schoolgirl’s death over eve-teasing is blow to women’s rights

The death of an Indian school girl over eve-teasing is a huge blow to women’s rights. Eve-teasing, a type of public sexual harassment or sexual assault of women by men, is a huge problem in the Republic of India. Such incidents often lead to the death of young girls.

Recently, two Indian schoolgirls riding bicycles were harassed by a man. The short CCTV video of the incident also went viral on social media. They were dressed in their school uniforms. They were riding their bicycles side by side on a road. Subsequently, two men on a motorbike pulled away the scarf of one of the girls. She lost her balance and collided with a second motorbike. She fell on the road and the third motorbike ran over her. The girl died because of eve-teasing. 

Blow to women’s rights

The two girls faced intense harassment. Before her tragic death, the school girl said that some boys had been harassing her and other girls outside their school. 

Her tragic death has put the spotlight on the issue of sexual harassment of women in India. Some women’s rights activists said that the tragic incident was more than just ‘eve teasing’.

Kalpana Viswanath, co-founder of Safetipin, a social organization, said, “It is a typical Bollywood trope that the hero pursues the woman and she likes to be pursued. But it’s a criminal offense, it’s violent, and let’s not minimize the harm of violence by calling it Eve-teasing.”

More than 80% of Indian women have faced harassment on the street

Do you know that over 80% of Indian women have faced harassment on the street? The number is shocking. Women traveling in public places in India have faced problems like catcalling, unsolicited comments, indecent behavior, inappropriate touches, and bad gestures.

Some women are also unable to report such incidents to the authorities. Some incidents of eve-teasing often go unreported. Reportedly, street harassment is an under-reported crime because most women do not file a case against them.