Face the Nation: Are Indians sex starved?

ON THE PROWL: Panelists debated how such disgraceful behaviour reflected on our society.

          

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Keywords: Mumbai, Molestation

It was India's new year shame: two women molested by over 60 men in the heart of Mumbai, a 15-year-old Swedish tourist groped in Kochi and girl students inside a Patna hostel not spared either.

From North to west to South, are women safe in our country? Are Indians sex starved? That was the question discussed on Face The Nation on CNN-IBN, hosted by Bhupendra Chaubey.

On the panel to debate the issue was ad guru Alyque Padamsee, along with Assistant Inspector-General with Punjab Police Amrit Brar and corporate MC and television anchor Geetika Ganjoo.

So how does this maddening behaviour reflect on our society? “It is absolutely disgraceful. When I was in college this kind of thing was unheard of. It was Bombay then, and Bombay had a certain civic sense. People queued up for buses. Today, due to the influx into Mumbai, the whole cultural ethos of good manners, good breeding has totally broken down. People coming in from across the country, particularly from the north, have the idea of treating women like property. Given that 48 per cent of marriages have wife beating, you can imagine at what level men treat women. I’m disgusted that the Mumbai police did not even file a suo motu case,” said Alyque Padamsee.

Molesters on the prowl

“This is the complete failure of the police and judiciary because men seem to think they can get away with it. They need to come down very severely on such elements,” insisted Geetika Ganjoo.

On the part of the police, Commissioner D N Jadhav on Wednesday accused the media of making "mountain out of molehill" in the case, completely downplaying the issue and dismissing it as a "minor issue". So is the protection of women at all a priority for the police? “The police cannot be looked at in isolation. There were 60 people at the spot. What were the rest of them doing? The police cannot reach out to every single citizen. The police is supposed to respond to certain things but this is not terrorism we are talking about,” said Amrit Brar.

Who's to blame

But have women now lost the freedom to be out on their own and have a good time? “If you go back in history, a 1000 years ago, it was all marvelous and there was sexual emancipation. Now sex is a taboo like in the Victorian era. We don’t even allow sex education in schools. How many schools have co-education? When men do not have the cultural background about respecting women, when they are in a mob, after a few drinks, they get rowdy and they think women are an amusement. I think the people to blame are the politicians,” said Alyque Padamsee.

If there was a comparison to be made, we see moral police coming out in full force the moment a couple is holding or kissing and in the same country, there are cases of such molestation. Is there not a sense of hypocrisy in our attitude towards sex?

“The politicians allow goonda elements to do anything they like,” put in Alyque Padamsee.