Incidents Of Sexual Assault  – There’s no need to describe the term “sexual assault”, because we all know what it means. It’s a shame, but still I would say, that in India, many women and men fall victim to it each and every day.

Well, thanks to the website, “How revealing!”, as it encourages men and women to share their painful incidents of sexual assault that they’ve been through.

These incidents of sexual assault will certainly break your heart, and it’ll show how cruel human beings can be.

1. This happened when I was 16

                     This happened when I was 16. My 10th exam was over and I went to a water park with my best friend. We went to a long tunnel slide. There were 4-5 boys standing there. She went on the slide first. And then I went. And two of the boys followed right after me which they were not supposed to. The one right behind me groped my breast and then put his hand inside my swimwear and was doing something with my nipple which was very painful. I was screaming and crying and resisted as much as I could but I couldn’t get him off me.

Then when we came out of the tunnel, I was half naked as he had put down my swimwear till my waist and they both ran away as fast as they could. There were a few people standing there but nobody chased them, instead they chose to stare at my naked body. My friend helped me and then we went to complain about the incident to one of the guards there but he said that it’s impossible to find them now as they must’ve left by now, and the whole time he was staring at my breast while talking to us. I didn’t tell about the incident to my parents or anybody. But it gave me nightmares and I couldn’t sleep at night for an around a month.

2. 28 Years Old

                 And I was 13 years old. I was an insufficiently masculine child, in a boy’s boarding school. I was bullied by my classmates and seniors, my towel snatched away, to check if I actually had a penis. One of our teachers took a special interest in me. According to him, I walked like a girl, talked like a girl, sat like a girl, carried my books like a girl (although, to this day, I have no idea what any of that means, especially for a 13-year old child). The teacher said this would happen, unless I “pulled up my socks.” He drew two lines on the ground, about two inches apart, and told me I should walk with my feet on either side of the line.

He told me I should sit with my knees apart, rather than pressed together. I practiced, and it was bothersome. He didn’t like the progress I was making, and he punished me, by sexually assaulting me in various ways. He said this is what the world would to to me, unless I shaped up. This went on for one whole term. I googled him recently, 28 years after the fact. He’s doing fine. So am I, FINALLY.

3. I was molested everyday by my French Tutor

                Well, I was molested everyday by my French tutor in the comfort of my home. He would close the sitting room and sit close to me. He would touch me and ask if it felt good. I was just 11. I hate myself for not screaming, for not fighting back or telling anyone.
This man destroyed my trust in man, took away my normality and replaced it with years of painful torturous reminders. I am 43 now and I still hate being near any man.

 It’s heartbreaking to read these incidents of sexual assault, right? I would like to say, that I know it might be hard to talk about it, but guys and girls, if you’re going through any such incident, then please SPEAK UP. It’s 2017, and trust me; the so-called society is not gonna come and save you. So, be strong and do the right thing.

The post People Shared Their Painful Incidents Of Sexual Assault And It’ll Hit You Straight In The Heart! appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

Communal riots based on different religious ideologies have been prevalent in our country for many decades now.

Religious Riots is also one issue being exploited by politicians and various other religious groups for their vested interests. However, to turn a sexual harassment issue, which is a ghastly act, into an even more horrifyingly scary communal riots issue can only be an act of extremely twisted and sick minds.

This is exactly what happened in 2013 when in Kaval, two brothers allegedly killed an accused that was charged with molesting their sister.

This triggered a series of events that eventually resulted in mass violence taking the shape of communal riots and killing as many as 60 people while displacing more than 50,000 out of their homes!

Keeping this is mind to avoid anything of this nature from happening in future, a district magistrate in western Uttar Pradesh has recently ordered for bringing to shame such anti-social elements who indulge in eve-teasing women. According to reports, police has been ordered to create ‘Majnu Pinjaras’ or Romeo Cages for public shaming of such culprits.

This may or may not be legal, but if we keep legality aside for a moment, this sounds like a good idea for lechers to mind their own business and think a hundred times before trying to rob a girl of her dignity. It doesn’t matter what part of the world one is living in, the bottom line to be considered is that nobody has a right to consider women as objects for sexual gratification. It is also absolutely a crime to eve-tease or cross the line with any girl without her consent. And in case one lives in an area popularly known for such incidents, which can be manipulated easily to give a communal colour, people should be extra cautious! If they are not, administration has to put its foot down and come up with innovative and harsh steps to teach these goons a lesson.

Having plain-clothed policemen and women around girls’ schools and colleges to catch hold of such lecherous men is a good start and if somehow these ‘Majnu Pinjaras’ are allowed and become a success, it would go a long way in bringing some law and order in the society. This will definitely prove to be a detriment for men to stay within limits and have a hold over their libido!

Girls are not there to be used at one’s will, but political and religious groups won’t leave any opportunity to pursue their agenda of divide and rule in a country of illiterates and a growing tribe of educated illiterates! Also, the police force has to be sensitised enough to file and pursue such sexual harassment cases to bring the culprits to justice so that things don’t go out of hand with various groups trying to fish in troubled waters.

The nation already has enough troubles, let’s not twist and turn one problem into making it another monster that goes out of control!

The post Are Girls The Real Cause Of Religious Riots? What The Hell? appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

Women’s day is past but women from different parts and corners of India still have to fight it out to make their position strong in the society and have a stable, peaceful and respectful life.

For Mahananda in Kappalguddi, a village in India, opportunity to save her poor mother from serious illness was offered but she had to pay a big price for giving her mother her life back. At the age of 16, when her mother was sick, her uncles offered her monetary help that amounted to Rupees 3000 but as she being a teenager could not pay the money back, her uncles sought another cruel way to get back the amount. They made her a Devadasi, or a temple slave where neither was she allowed to marry anyone in her life nor her future generation could ever come out of the torments of slavery and sexual exploitation.

When she was fettered in the shackles of sexual abuse, she probably did not even know what was about to happen to her as she was sold to a trader in Sangli for sex trade. She was enslaved as a Devadasi, a practice that had been deemed as illegal way back in the 1980s but is still used and misused to sell and enslave girls, only to harass them sexually. The social stigma in the country around devadasis has been such that they are being denied employment and even cannot save their children from getting drawn into this vicious circle of ruthlessness and crime.

The figures would shock you: while 91 per cent of devadasis are illiterate, 93 per cent are unmarried. 200 girls and women are made to become prostitutes daily where 80 per cent are unwilling.

Mahananda was another victim of this evil system and could not do much at that time when she was forced into it, given her age and inexperience of the world’s culprits. She had to spend three years, not at her home but at a brothel house. Earlier, she had been able to save her mother, but now it was time to save herself. But how could she? Days of hope and brighter future evaded her in those three years until one fine day, she could finally plead with the brothel owner and convince the person to let her go, now that she was a mother.

However, as she had been already labelled a ‘whore’ by the society, it was difficult for her to find a life for herself anywhere outside the brothel. Neither could she marry anyone because Devadasis are not supposed to marry anyone and nobody comes ahead to marry these women nor could she do a job of her own choice.

So, Mahananda set out to win back her respect and dignity in the society and to give her daughters a life of their own, a respectable prestigious position in the society that could only be possible through education.

She began with a sewing enterprise which has now been running for four years and her daughters are studying in Morarji Residential School for free. While the older daughter, Rekha is pursuing her science course before joining a university and wants to make a career in medicine, the younger one, Puja is set to have her goals right for her career and life ahead. She plans to study science and is currently studying in the 8^th class.

At the age of 34, Mahananda has been capable enough of employing four other former devdasis in her sewing business. After all, she could not have let her daughters be turned into devadasis as she believes that girls should be given the right to prosper and this is why she has put much efforts and pain in bringing up her daughters so that they can enjoy the good life where there is much happiness and prosperity, the things she was denied.

As and how her daughters are growing and are looking forward to college admission, Mahananda felt she needed to earn more. She applied for an enterprise loan through Milaap’s Hope Project to buy three more sewing machines which she has put to use after employing former devadasis. She has even executed a small training programme where she teaches 10 other former devadasis to sew and charges them Rupees 100 on a monthly basis. Since her sewing gig is not enough to fend her funds, she also works on farms in the morning, as her village is a remote one and does not let her earn much only through tailoring business.

Though she had been constantly pecked at and misbehaved with by the society, the ray of hope in her was alive and she put it to a good use by giving her daughters a life better in every sense than hers. Her love as a mother for her daughters and as a woman in understanding the importance of educating girls is far beyond the ills of the society and the twisted mind-set of people. She has not said it, but done it; she has empowered other women like herself who also needed a breakthrough, a new hope and reason to live a better life and mark a new beginning in their way of living.

In her journey towards freedom, Mahananda has come across an activist, Sitava who attempts at helping former Devadasis get back a normal, healthy life and also got training and financial help through a membership organization  comprising of devadasi women, called Mahila Abhivrudhi Samrakshana Samsthe or MASS that has been in the business of promoting development and a healthy living for devadasi women in Belgaum district, Karnataka. This institute now holds more than 5000 devadasis together and has helped to assimilate their lives to make them as normal as possible. This organization has been working towards eradicating the devadasi system altogether and empowering women and girls exploited in this system for commercial sexual harassment under the disguise of making them devadasis.

This is the organization that aided her in crowd-funding a microloan which helped her in running her sewing enterprise all these years effectively.

Mahananda has been among women who have battled through the socio-economic hassles and setbacks only so that she could protect her children from serving as devadasis or be harassed by the evil society in the name of giving them a life. There are many like her in rural India who have been victims of such horrendous crimes and ruthlessness and have had to seek training as well as financial support to become proud women entrepreneurs and trendsetters, building other such women’s lives along with empowering their own children, dismantling the stigma and barriers the society had set, thus revolting and rebelling against the entire system.

We can only live the spirit of Women’s day in the true sense and make it truly happy and worthwhile if we can garner support for these women from their own brethren, identify and appreciate their painstaking efforts and boost their confidence for a brighter, more hopeful future.

After all, it is hope that has kept the world in its place.

Hope against all odds and adversities!

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