CHENNAI : Self-defence is the new buzzword for dealing with violence against women. Besides self-defence, being mentally prepared is vital in dealing with sexual violence. ‘Power of Women’, a campaign by the Department of Communication of the MOP Vaishnav College for Women on Thursday aimed at equipping girls to fight back against an unexpected attack.
“Whenever you walk on the road, thousands of eyeballs are watching you. You are just a commodity to them,” Shabnam Banu, the special guest and a High Court advocate told the girls, who shared with her their experiences of them being teased. Quoting the IPC Section 100 on self-defence, she made it clear that ‘The law welcomes you to hit them back,’ adding that this was not just in public but also at home, with rising cases of sexual abuse within the family.
“We need to appreciate woman and say they have battled rape, and not succumbed to injuries,” she said. “Stare back, talk back and don’t avoid a bus because you got groped, but make a complaint and fight back.”
While Shabnam told girls to give it back and not take things lying down, Anoop Madhavan from the group Survival Instincts took a more practical stand. “If your assailant is 6 “4”, weighs a 100 kilograms and a psychopath, you have no chance even if you know basic self-defence. The best bet would be to escape, never mind the ego,” he said. Survival Instincts is a non-profit group which provides training for medical emergencies, natural disasters, crime and other survival situation. “Mere martial arts is not self-defence because the training is not under the conditions of the crime,” Anoop said.