India most dangerous country for women with sexual violence rife - global poll // Women in Hindi media suffer a toxic culture of harassment – but #MeToo is ‘unthinkable’ for them
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India
is the world’s most dangerous country for women due to the high risk of sexual
violence and being forced into slave labour, according to a poll of global
experts released on Tuesday. War-torn Afghanistan
and Syria ranked second and third in the Thomson Reuters Foundation survey of
about 550 experts on women’s issues, followed by Somalia and Saudi Arabia. The only Western
nation in the top 10 was the United States, which ranked joint third when
respondents were asked where women were most at risk of sexual violence,
harassment and being coerced into sex.
The poll was a repeat
of a survey in 2011 that found experts saw Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Pakistan, India, and Somalia as the most dangerous countries for women. Experts said India
moving to the top of poll showed not enough was being done to tackle the danger
women faced, more than five years after the rape and murder of a student on a
bus in Delhi made violence against women a national priority. “India has shown utter
disregard and disrespect for women ... rape, marital rapes, sexual assault and
harassment, female infanticide has gone unabated,” said Manjunath Gangadhara,
an official at the Karnataka state government. “The (world’s) fastest
growing economy and leader in space and technology is shamed for violence
committed against women.” Government data shows
reported cases of crime against women rose by 83 percent between 2007 and 2016,
when there were four cases of rape reported every hour.
The survey asked
respondents which five of the 193 United Nations member states they thought
were most dangerous for women and which country was worst in terms of
healthcare, economic resources, cultural or traditional practices, sexual
violence and harassment, non-sexual violence and human trafficking. Respondents also
ranked India the most dangerous country for women in terms of human
trafficking, including sex slavery and domestic servitude, and for customary
practices such as forced marriage, stoning and female infanticide. India’s
Ministry of Women and Child Development declined to comment on the survey
results.
Women in Hindi media suffer a toxic culture of harassment – but #MeToo is ‘unthinkable’ for them
“Men in the Hindi media are lecherous to their core,” said Manisha Pandey, an editor with News 18. “It is a male bastion where women are neither considered intelligent nor capable of handling anything creative. All the soft beats are usually assigned to women. It’s a cultural and societal problem of the Hindi belt which reflects in these newsrooms.”
Swati Arjun, a senior
journalist who has worked across print, TV and online media, claimed there is a
“culture of rampant harassment” in Hindi newsrooms, and the people in authority
who are supposed to support vulnerable women employees often either turn a
blind eye or side with the harassers. The worst are TV newsrooms,
where men in positions of power routinely get away with harassing women despite
complaints, Arjun said. “I joined this Hindi convergence wing of a leading
channel based in Delhi and came to know of this manager who would ask women
colleagues to call him late at night to discuss their shifts,” she said. “In
the office, he would ask women to bring him coffee in his cabin. I found it
very humiliating. Many women did it just to protect their jobs. I did not which
led to him harassing me.” She was made to work
long hours and not allowed to take a day off for weeks, pushing her to the
brink of a breakdown. She approached a human resources manager, a woman, with
her complaint but to no avail. “She said, ‘If your superior is not happy then
there is no point to anything’,” Arjun said. “I told him the superior’s
behaviour was sexist to which he replied, ‘But there’s no mention of sexual
harassment in your complaint.’ I was shocked.”
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