Today, I saw something that was normal, but shocked everyone else. I am talking about boys who go to school and college boys but are learning something else. They are doing assignments of collecting and morphing pictures of girls and women, completing the homework of uploading the pictures on their account, and applying all their knowledge on finding ways to rape them.
What kind of education teaches boys to find pleasure in such activities, why has the system failed these boys in becoming human and why are there no sex education classes in schools — and even if they are, they are no less than free periods.
These boys are not the real culprits. They are mere victims of the knowledge they inculcate from society. They are not protected by their family, friends and schools and the society, who have inculcated the thought that they can do anything and get away with it. They can continue with their education, have a good career and not face any issues in getting married. So, they take undue advantage of this school of thought and do what they wish to do. For them, this whole chapter of the Bois Locker Room is like a dream (sometimes, a nightmare). All their life, they are taught that they are superior to girls, while girls are inferior to them. This lack of equality gives them the courage to talk insensitively about women.
But what is more shocking is that the girl who is on the receiving end of this harassment does not get any support, even from her own family. Her phone is snatched, her education suffers and her normal life gets disturbed. All this is done in the name of her family’s honour. Forget about understanding her fear and pain, the family does not even bother to listen to her. The same society allows boys to make as many mistakes as they want, but a girl isn’t allowed to make any mistake. She has to adjust her life according to the boy and live like a culprit even though she has done nothing wrong.
The survivors are afraid to speak up because of this mentality. They do not want their life to get spoiled further, and their silence gives these boys a boost to continue this type of behaviour. Even if a girl decides to take an action, the highest achievement for her is a warning to the boy or his suspension for a couple of days. That’s all. If she goes to the police, all she gets to hear from the culprit’s family is that their child’s life will be ruined or he will not do anything like this again. No one empathises with the girl, as if she has not faced anything major.
We all have come across these incidents; almost every school has this group of boys. But what does the school and society do to them? Nothing. Boys will be boys, if boys won’t fool around, then who will. “Ladke hain, thodi bahut galti to ho jaati hain, baat hi toh kar rahe hain, kuch kiya thodi na hai (They are boys after all, sometimes mistakes are made, they are only talking, they haven’t don’t anything bad yet)” —all these statements are more than enough to cover for their actions. Kenya recently came up with educating boys on how to behave with girls and focus on their moral values more than marks. So why can’t we use these?