Boys, did you know that if you tease a girl, just because she happens to be a girl, it is a crime under the law? As friends you can play harmless pranks on classmates irrespective of their gender. But the moment you make a comment or do something to a girl, which you would not do to a boy, you cross a boundary. In fact, picking on girls for teasing is a form of discrimination. The law terms such behaviour eve teasing and civilised persons frown upon it.
Yet instances of eve teasing are on the rise in our country. Irrespective of age, women are humiliated by men who derive a vicarious pleasure out of it, which is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in our society. As school students, it is your duty to pick up the cudgels and change the way society looks at women.
The practice of putting women down, confining them to the home to do chores that a man does not want to do, is a barbaric culture belonging to a time when human beings lived in caves, subsisting as hunter gatherers. Unfortunately, traces of the old mindset still linger and many men refuse to see a woman as their equal.
As students of the 21st century, you all know that women do as well as men in all spheres of life. You must know many girls, in your school or elsewhere, who score better marks than a lot of boys and perform better in culturals too. Are not your women teachers competent persons?
If you see men outnumbering women in many careers, it is not because women are not capable of doing those jobs but only because they were not given the opportunity in older times. Historically, women started to work comparatively recently. Nowadays you see many women working in fields like IT, media and hospitality, and even excelling in business.
Yet in our multicultural society, as I told you earlier, women are harassed on the roads, in public places and in their working environments. You have seen it. It happens mainly because some men tend to believe that women are not their equals, they think that they can bully women and get away with it. You should put an end to that and work for an equal society sans gender discrimination.
So, if you come across an instance of a girl or woman being teased or harassed you should intervene. You can call the police, you can alert other people around you. Above all, if any girl known to you is a victim of eve teasing, you should be supportive of her and help her bring the culprit to book. It is your duty to ensure that no woman is intimidated by such teasing or harassment.
You should realise that eve teasing exemplifies a man’s attempt to deny equal rights to women. In a civilised society such attitudes have no place. Not only is discrimination in any form a violation of the laws of the land, it needs to be overcome by concerned citizens, which includes you.
Do not be carried away by the view of some men that eve teasing is just fun. It is a crime. You have to fight against it. And never, in your life, harass a woman.