Delhi is an unsafe city. Women are targeted in any costume, on any street, at any time of the day.Many-of all ages and backgrounds, haven’t exactly put their heads together to think of a solution to such heinous occurrences.

“You can’t travel alone at 2am and then say Delhi is not safe. It would be ideal if a woman takes her brother or driver along. It’s wrong to say the Capital is not safe for women.” (daily bhaskar)

This is the solution of our Police Commisioner  BK Gupta,who skillfully and typically washes his , and the rest of the police force’s hands of  not taking any responsibility for doing their job properly.We must note that he  ignores the fact that sometimes women have jobs which require them to be out at those times. His statement can only mean that us women will have to take a guy around with us for every stick and stone errand, because if we don’t, we are simply calling out for trouble, and shouldn’t complain if we do indeed face any- because, well Gupta uncle warned us otherwise. If we do not heed, we are the ones to be blamed.

So instead of punishing the offenders, who ‘happen’ to be male, we ourselves are made to be confined and restricted. How come nobody has ever thought about this notion; the fact that in male dominated and patriarchal-conservative societies the women have to shun themselves, burden themselves with fear and self control, whereas the male population walk and go about their daily routine so freely. You can see it on any woman’s face here, on the streets of delhi-the tensed up look of potential victimization….But the men? Majority of them, don’t seem to have a care in the world. Infact a clear example of this can be seen from my own personal experience, when I was crossing the road outside my college gates. There were 2 men on a motorcycle going in the wrong direction. As I crossed, they zoomed past infront of me yelling obscenities. Why? Wasn’t I doing the right thing in contrast to them?

But it didn’t matter, because I was a nuisance to them for that particular moment. I was a woman walking on a zebra crossing.

We do understand that men face social pressures and dangers as well. Lets not laugh or chuckle at the recent incident of the north campus guy, who was raped by men during broad daylight. If they see rape as emasculation, and are typically said to not have the feminine quality of sharing their pain with others, who said that rape is something atypical for us women, because we are able to talk about our experiences (on a general, majority scale) and its seen as ‘common’? I find it just as emasculating for women, as it is for men who face rape.

However, going back to Gupta’s remark-we must admit that the wrong people are being warned. Why not warn the offenders? If all women are made to follow the chaperone rule, because some are attacked on the streets- then why can’t all men be punished, because some attack women on the streets?
Why not have a curfew for men, after 9.30pm? Yes, all men would hate that..and some women too., but someday or the other, everyone will have to learn.

The ideal tagline for such a rule would be: ‘If you dont know how to behave in public, don’t come out of your house’.I think this would work out just fine.