Protection & Safety of Women in India

There is a saying “sex is not bad, sex is too good to be misused.” This has to be the premise of all thought that goes into creating frameworks & institutions that shall work towards the goal of providing protection & safety for women in India.

Awareness of Sexuality:

Natural Curiosity about sex and sexuality is among the basic human instincts and cannot be wished away or educated / policed away and should not be curbed in any way. Any law / steps taken towards correcting the social imbalance against the various forms of exploitation should not in any way create a negative impact on anyone’s mind on what Sex & Sexuality is. As such, there is too much disinformation and wrong impressions in young men’s and women’s minds on what Sex and Sexuality is. In the process of educating and enacting laws, sex itself should not be treated as a taboo.

Education & Exploration of Sex & Sexuality:

At the appropriate ages of attaining puberty, both boys and girls must undergo a proper education of what sex and sexuality means and what are the social norms. Here the govt. can play an important role through both formal and informal means of communications to set the boundaries of what is safe exploration and ensure that education drives a healthy knowledge about sex and socially acceptable ways of exploring sexuality.
To understand today’s problem, we have to understand a progression in the types of problems a girl/woman goes through.
1. Exploitation & Harassment 2. Molestation 3. Rape

Problems & Solutions

1. Social Education 
2. Sex Education 
3. Sex Helpline for seeking clarity (To tackle Exploitation & Harassment) 
4. Sex Exploitation Emergency Helpline (To tackle Molestation) 
5. Sensitizing Legal and Para Legal bodies on limits and methods to be adopted for taking cognizance, investigating, prosecuting sexual offences 
6. Defining Sexual Harassment in Workplaces 
7. Defining Consensual Sex 
8. Defining Statutory Rape 
9. Legalising Prostitution 
10. Changing of Evidence Act of India to accomodate modern and more scientifc methods of ascertaining & establishing rape and sexual offences. 
11. Creating specialized Sexual Reform Centers for Rape & Sexual offenders as an alternate to Regular Prison Time, in lines of Rehabilitation Centers for Substance Abuse. 
12. The first 5 have to converted into Actionable Institutions on ground through various means, whereas the rest are legal frameworks and policy guidelines. 

Actionable Items on ground could be

• Sexual Health and Helpline in each Health Centre 
• Sexual exploitation helpline with All Women’s police stations with a reach of 1 Police station for 1,00,000 population 
• Institutionalization of Sex Education Board creating programs that are equally sensitive to local, religious and social norms 
• Each District Court / Munsif Court to have a separate cell to receive complaints and act on them through direct cognizance and direct the police to investigate and interrogate complaints answerable to the court and not the complainant