No woman, of any age, color, character, ever deserves to be sexually assaulted or what some might lightly call “eve-teased”. That would be unanimously unheard-of a girl who hasn’t encountered these disastrous incidents ever in her entire life. Eve-teasing, Abuse, molestation and exploitation are those obscenities which she has to combat in our society. We don’t raise our voices against such incidents enough and we are not proactive in preventing it because most of us are deserters to do so. I usually wonder, what prompts a man to do such atrocious and raunchy lapses? Where is the flaw which metamorphoses them into a ‘monster’? Is it the conduct and ethics of our culture that we have been bragging about for an era? Is this a girl deserves in return of love what she bestows?


These are the questions which the government of Haryana is pondering upon. Following the lead of Yogi Adityanath government’s Anti-Romeo squads, the BJP government of neighboring Haryana announced the launch of DURGA VAHINI in 2017. Under this drive, strict and rigorous actions were promised to be taken against “eve-teasers”. But is it enough? It has been observed that women hesitate in reporting such incidents to the lawmen.

Operation DURGA was launched to ensure safety of women and to encourage them to lodge complaints. The condition of women in Haryana has always been a matter of grave concern as total population of Haryana as per 2011 census is 25,351,462 of which male and female are 13,494,734 and 11,856,728, respectively. One of the main reasons of demarcating women within four walls in Haryana is the mentality which deems women inferior to men and merely limits their importance to the maintenance of the household, the upbringing of children and pleasing their husbands and serving other members of the family.

We all should understand that security is the priority, but people must become responsible. Strong and stringent laws are definitely necessary as the existing laws have proved to be inefficient in ensuring swift justice and appropriate punishment to the guilty. But the actual need of the hour is a revolutionary change in the mindsets and conscience of Indian men so that they stop seeing women as objects of sexual pleasure.

The government laws can only support the idea of women’s safety; it alone can’t bring the revolution. This action of Haryana government would’ve been a success when a woman engages in all sorts of economic and social spheres without imminent threat to her safety. It’s rightly quoted by MALALA YOUSAFZAI for all women’s rights across the globe “I rise up my voice-not so I can shout but so that those without a voice can be heard…we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.”

Manisha Kumari