Written by : Masood Ahmed, LL. M (3rd Semester Student), Kalinga University
Abstract
Street harassment has become one of the common issues that women and girls all over the world face, which directly affects their safety and mental soundness and capability to move freely. In India, as it is in other parts of the world, the laws on the ground have an objective of curbing harassment, yet it is implementation and social stigma that inhibit these measures. The Article is an attempt to delve into the legal structures at both national and international levels to assess how effective the implementation of law is in curbing street harassment and enhancing public safety regarding girls. It also indicates the cultural changes needed to make these measures more effective. The findings suggest that it is only by combining legal reformulation, public involvement, and awareness in society that really safe public spaces will be encouraged.
1. Introduction
Street harassment-unsolicited verbal remarks, following, touching, and intimidation-significantly impacts women and girls in public areas. This harassment restricts their liberty, opportunities for involvement in public life, and safety. Public harassment constrains women's movement and daily activities across urban and rural areas and acts as a hindrance to gender equality. This Article addresses street harassment from a legal as well as a sociocultural perspective, including national laws, international conventions, case laws, and policy initiatives aimed at protecting women in public spaces.
In India, specific proposals are aimed at curbing public harassment and formulated pertinent laws such as IPC provisions. However, the frequency of such occurrences reveals that law alone cannot change the scenario without a change in societal and cultural values. This paper summarizes the major steps in legal frameworks and reviews international and national instances, hence presenting an integrated plan for safer public places.
2. Legal Frameworks Addressing Street Harassment
A. National Legislation (India)
India has its own legislative approach with specific sections of the IPC and other enactments to deal with public harassment, in addition to penalties for actions considered harassment:
Indian Penal Code and Bhartiya Nyaya Provisions:
I. Section 354 of IPC and Section 74 of BNS: Abets assault or the use of criminal force intending to outrage a woman's modesty. This section is broad and has been instrumental in prosecuting varied forms of harassment.
II. Section 354D of IPC and Section 78 of BNS: Defines stalking, which comprises repeated following, contacting, or attempts to instigate personal communication against the will of the woman. The provision catches on the essential fact that harassment often begins as stalking.
III. Section 509 and Section 79 of BNS: Criminalizes any action which is intended to insult a woman's modesty by words, gestures, or acts. This section has been amended to situations in which verbal harassment and obscene gestures have occurred.
There is the Protection of Women from Sexual Harassment (POSH) Act that, though primarily focused in the context of a workplace-related harassment, the procedure of this act serves as a model for harassment redressal that could be implemented in public spaces, too. Several advocacy groups argue that the redressal mechanisms in place through POSH protections should be extended to protect all women in public spaces.
Ø State-wise Measures: The state-led measures, like the Delhi Police's "Himmat" app, allow reporting in real time and also are a part of the state's approach toward public safety[1]. Similarly, several states have launched women-specific public transport facilities in nearly all of its cities, which are overcrowded with vast populations to reduce the incidents of harassment inside public transport.
B. International Agreements and International Models
a. Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)[2]: India is a signatory to CEDAW that requires all forms of gender discrimination and violence, including harassment to be eliminated. The guidelines of CEDAW ask governments to enact laws relating to public harassment although society raises challenges in enforcement as well as due to confusion over definitions, which differs from place to place.
b. SDG Goal 5[3]: Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls-Age Target 5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public domain.
c. UN Women's Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Initiative[4]: This program has been launched in all cities worldwide including the city of New Delhi, as part of the broader effort to make cities safer. Some of the strategies taken under this initiative include better urban planning, better street lights on highways and streets, and contact centres that can be applied in emergencies. The Safe Cities initiative becomes a model or an outline for other Indian cities to make public spaces safer places for women.
C. Comparative Analysis
Global action against street harassment carries several lessons. France passed an act in 2018 criminalizing street harassment, in effect giving on-the-spot fines to harassers. In some parts of the United States, local ordinances empower law enforcement to confront harassers through fines and public education. The case illustrates that punitive action and public campaigns can work, especially when public opinion stands behind the legislation.
3. Efficiency of Laws and Challenges of Implementation
A. Case Law and Judicial Decisions
Several case laws in India have had a very significant impact on harassment as well as the safety of women:
Ø Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan[5]: In this landmark case, though focused on harassment in the workplace, guidelines were made for respect for women's dignity in public. The Vishaka Guidelines provided a basis for future legislation in India on harassment and highlighted that harassment violates fundamental rights.
Ø Delhi High Court Decisions: A level of harassment so rampant has caused the Delhi High Court to hold that public harassment in the form of stalking and verbal abuse is a criminal action. The judiciary has interpreted provisions liberally enough to interpret relief for aggrieved women; it has recognized that the perpetrator's words in public and gestures can be outrageous enough to offend a person's dignity.
B. Policy Initiatives and Ground-Level Issues
Though India has a strong legal framework against harassment, it faces the following challenges:
Ø Social Stigma: People do not report street harassment as they fear social stigma associated with publicizing the matter. In general, victims fear that it would bring a bad name to them and may be blamed in small towns and rural areas where people follow age-old values.
Ø Limitations in Law Enforcement: Police officers are less likely to be given proper training in dealing with this form of street harassment sensitively. Most of the departments require gender-sensitivity training, which is a major concern so that officers can actually help the victims to complain against harassers without bias.
Ø Resource Constraints: Infrastructure challenges such as dim streetlights and lack of CCTV cameras at street junctions also discourage enforcement. Additionally, a few female officers reflect women's cases, which are not reported.
4. Statistical Data and Empirical Studies
Ø Availability of extremely inadequate public safety resources will reduce the effective surveillance and reporting of street harassment cases.
Ø National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB): Crimes against women in public spaces are still seriously underreported, according to the latest NCRB report. Harassment incidents have always led in numbers in cities like Delhi and Mumbai.
Studies of public harassment, that NGOs such as Breakthrough and the Jagori Foundation have conducted, detail that more than 80% of women in the metropolitan regions have faced harassment. Such a large number of statistics indicates the scope of the problem and the imperative of increasing public awareness.
Ø Global Comparisons: International organizations, UN Women and Plan International, come up with annual reports on harassment. From such reports, one is able to establish how street harassment in public spaces affects women's mental health, freedom of movement, and possibly their opportunities for economic empowerment. Such global comparisons will help put things into perspective that street harassment is not an Indian problem but a universal issue affecting gender equality.
5. Social and Cultural Changes Needed for Enforcement
Along with legal solutions, proper enforcement of street harassment requires changes in the attitude of people at large:
Ø Challenging Public Perception
Sometimes, but not always, societies trivialize the very concept of harassment, which does not help in the enforcement of street harassment against women. To counteract this, governments and NGOs have launched initiatives of creating gender-sensitive attitudes among the citizens. For example, the Stand-Up campaign inspires bystander intervention by making people learn about how to intervene safely while witnessing a case of harassment.
Ø Community Engagement Initiatives and Safe Spaces: Initiatives like Girls at Dhabas reclaim the public space for women and emphasize that the very public spaces are a place to feel safe and secure. Such movements pose a contradiction to the conventional social norms of 'fear of the female in public'.
Ø Education Programs and Sensitization Programs: Bystander Intervention Training Empowers the Community to Respond to Harassment. School and Work place sensitization programs help in further instilling respect for gender equity and inhibit harassment by instilling the sense of responsibility.
Cultural and legal reforms together may be very effective in countering harassment in public places due to obvious reasons of gender respect and safety.
6. Recommendations and Conclusion
A. Legal and Policy Recommendations
More stringent definitions of public harassment in Indian law would also encompass more specific charges and better enforcements. That can be achieved by increasing the penalty for repeated offenses, with the consequent effect of deterring harassment.
Improved reporting mechanisms with anonymous reporting systems to remove the fear of reporting incidents. Simple reporting platforms accessible on mobile applications will be very useful.
Ø Law Enforcement Training: Police officers require larger training in regard to gender sensitization and harassment management with specific guidelines to be followed when dealing with complaints concerning public harassment.
Ø Infrastructure Investments: Properly lighted public premises, enhanced CCTV camera coverage, and providing gender-segregated transport facilities reduce the risks that a woman faces in public premises.
B. Conclusion
There is an overwhelming incidence of street harassment against girls that requires drastic reformation that seeks to build a new momentum in the legal, policy, and cultural spheres. Whereas the law in place can protect and aid such an issue to a certain extent, it is basically the cooperation of the public authorities and government institutions along with law enforcement representatives that will bring about the real change. Developing a respect culture for women's rights within public spaces and making harassers accountable will ensure that society progresses toward one that really supports and enhances women's safety and empowerment within all its public spaces.
[4] https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/How%20We%20Work/flagship%20programmes/UN-Women-Flagship-programme-Safe-cities-public-spaces-en.pdf
[5] AIR 1997 SC 3011
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