We are living in the 21st century today, but still the mindset of people has not changed. Women are discriminated and teased. Still today, women are not safe outside home. Whenever a girl goes out to school or any other places, her parents worry until her daughter returns home safe and sound. The mode for which women cannot live or move peacefully is Eve Teasing. Eve teasing is a violation of a woman’s basic right to live in dignity. Women have always been subject to eve teasing and the trend unfortunately, continues to grow. The cases relating to eve teasing, sexual harassment, rape, molestation etc are on all time high. When it comes to eve teasing, no matter what are the educational background, caste, complexion and race of women, many of them have gone through these unpleasant experiences. Study shows, almost 90 percent of college going girls have experienced some sort of sexual harassment at different point of time. Unfortunately, not many women register complaints of eve teasing or harassment because of the fear of humiliation and public exposure. Many women who were victim of sexual harassment commit suicide because of social disclosure. The society is not kind to the victims. The problem here is of mindset. Even if the laws are there, they are not effective and most of the people are not aware of it. It is not possible for every victim to stand in the court of law and answer uncomfortable questions. In many cases, parents themselves ask their daughters to forget about the incident as it can cause them public shame and embarrassment.
However, the efforts taken by different NGOs, media and social welfare organizations to trying to educate people about the grave consequences of eve teasing are commendable. The focus here is on changing the mindset of male community and respecting the women. The attitude towards women needs to be changed, only then we can expect gender equality in the real sense. This essay will discuss the effectiveness of Eve teasing law in Bangladesh and in neighboring country India.
Eve teasing is complex problem and which requires more attention. The problem of eve teasing took its roots during the 60s when women had started to go out for schools, colleges and jobs. Eve teasing keeps developing in different forms: right from a flirtatious comment to street harassment and molestation, it can turn disastrous for women. No amounts of efforts and policies have proved to be particularly effective against this serious problem. Eve teasing is a complex social problem that will not vanish until the mindset is changed. Apart from law, it is also about education and respecting women.
Critics argue that laws which should prohibit sexual harassment are so poorly designed that victims get practically no help from the law enforcement agencies. Families of the victims are left feeling hopeless and helpless. “Some victims find suicide to the only avenue that enables them to escape this social pandemic,â€
Those who are teased do not like to go to school and sometimes guardians do not allow them to go to school for their safety concern. So, the drop-out rate of female students in many schools is increasing. Another negative sign of the problem is the tendency of parents to push underage daughters into early marriages so that they can escape from eve teasing. Parents think that if their daughter has a husband, they can be saved from eve teasing; but this is not actually true. Teasers do not tease by seeing whether a girl is married or not.
