Editorial

16 Days of Activism Lost
Each year, from 25 November to 10 December, the United Nations and women’s groups around the world gather forces to organize “Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence” to draw attention to the continuing violence against women, at home, out in the open and at the work-place. The dates include 25 November, designated by the UN as “Day Against Violence Against Women”; 01 December, “World AIDS Day”; 06 December, “anniversary of the Montreal Massacre” when 14 women engineering students were gunned down for being feminists and 10 December, “Human Rights Day”.
A Day is earmarked for issues demanding consistent governmental and people’s support so that at least once a year, they take centre-stage and force everyone to take notice. The fact that violence against women demands 16 Days of Activism in the public domain [with those involved in curbing it working at their own levels the rest of the year] says a lot about how much this underbelly of the society continues to haunt. The 16 Days are not just marked for India or the Middle East which are notorious for their incessant insult of women, but are observed across the world. The choice of ‘Days’ which fall during these 16 days is also telling. It is important to remember abused women on World AIDS Day, because a victim of abuse is not in a position to demand safe sex. The carnage of Montreal remembered on 06 December is important because it brings home the point that violence against women is not just a Third World aberration, it is a social concern all over the world. Rounding up the 16 days of activism against gender violence with the Human Rights Day is apt for obvious reasons – human rights are infringed upon not only by the establishment, but also by people at home, by husbands who beat up their wives and families which sanction female foeticide and look the other way when an abused lady needs support.
Unfortunately, we did not see the 16 Days of Activism in Sikkim. Agreed, as far as the official policy goes, women are taken special care of in Sikkim, but the establishment can only ensure the Rights, it cannot prick social conscience. For something like that, women, at least for some days in the year, need to come out on the streets, they need to be contacted in the bastis and the towns, they need to gather ranks and understand what their rights are, realize how some of them are still victims at home and at the work place and decide how things can be improved. In any society where alcoholism is high, domestic violence can be expected to be high as well. In the last one month alone, two housewives were killed in separate incidents of domestic violence of grotesque proportions. It goes without saying that the fatal beatings were not the first and everyone knows that domestic violence is loud and vicious, meaning that neighbours in the cheek-by-jowl tenements of Sikkim would have known of the violent episodes. But none intervened. Even if one were to accept that domestic disputes are uncomfortable to intervene into, surely, when violence which could kill is underway, someone should have done something… called in the cops at least. Societal indifference is actually an instigator for domestic violence and the recent fatalities prove it. All these factors are at work in Sikkim and domestic violence is rather high. According to a report recently released by the World Health Organisation [WHO], one in six women around the world suffer from domestic violence. What is the statistic for Sikkim? We have not even bothered to find out. That is how uncaring Sikkim is because it is comfortable with being so un-informed. Violence against women ranges from wife battering, to rape, to incest, to dowry murders, to honour killings, female foeticide and economic violence. This is an issue that needs to be addressed and it is not the government’s job to do even this for the society – it has to be the civil society, social bodies and women organizations that have to stand up to the task and address the problem.