New Delhi: In India's conservative capital Delhi, Job Chawang is tasked with teaching auto-rickshaw drivers not to judge women for wearing short dresses.
It's critical, the Manas Foundation trainer said, as many crimes occur here because men want "to teach girls a lesson for behaving in such a lewd manner – which is not the culture of India".
NGOs like Manas are stepping up efforts to change male mindsets in India in light of a rising number of reported rapes.
"Unless we change mindsets, no matter how many good initiatives the government introduces, it will not have any effect," Centre for Social Research project co-ordinator Anubhuti Vatsayan said.
It comes after a spate of child rapes in Delhi reignited anger over authorities' continuing failure to protect women and children, almost three years after a fatal gang rape sparked nationwide protests. The brutal attack left a student bleeding on a road with her entrails exposed. It led to tougher penalties, including the death sentence in cases of extreme violence.
Angry crowds gathered again after two girls, aged five and two, were allegedly raped in separate cases on October 16, a week after a four-year-old was reportedly raped and left on railway tracks.
In response, Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal promised to consider changing laws again, lowering the age at which juveniles can be prosecuted as adults from 18 to 15 and funding 20 fast-track courts, to prevent cases dragging for years.
But gender experts say new courts and penalties won't solve the problem. "The conviction rate is so negligible that there is no fear of law," consultant gender trainer Prajakta Neelkanth said. Meanwhile, "we see rape cases rising, molestation of very small kids rising".
The number of rapes in India increased 9 per cent to 33,707 in 2014 – statistics showed Delhi recorded most cases at 1813. The rise is believed to indicate improved reporting of a vastly underreported crime.
Ms Vatsayan said the only way to end the violence is upending "deeply rooted" patriarchy tied to traditions like dowry, which continues despite being illegal, meaning: "When a girl is born, it's not happiness parents feel, it's considered a burden." Families raise children according to norms dictating girls stay home while "boys can roam about when they want", Ms Vatsayan said.
"When little boys are told how to respect women, only then will things change," she said.
In India, a developing country of 1.3 billion people, the crisis is fuelled by poverty and urbanisation. Poorly educated men are leaving villages in droves and many can't find work in cities, Ms Neelkanth said. "They have nothing to do and they're full of frustration; it's very easy to go throw stones at the market, or go abuse somebody."
To dispel negative notions about girls, India's government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched women's schemes and campaigns like "Selfie with Daughter", which encouraged fathers to share photos online in June.
NGOs like Manas and CSR run gender training, teaching the dangers of stereotypes to diverse groups – from rickshaw drivers to doctors. Most crucial are front-line authorities like police.
"If they haven't changed their mindsets according to the changing times, while delivering their duties they don't do justice," Ms Neelkanth said.
Delhi police had a reputation for turning rape victims away. The 2012 crime saw "the entire world press" ridicule their attitude towards women, bringing demand for gender training, Ms Vatsayan said. She believes training has led to improvements for women at police stations, saying: "There never used to be officers sitting at the women's help desk, now there are."
Having just finished training, rickshaw driver Madan Sahni thinks any move to make the city safer is good. "I feel very insecure for my daughter here," the 28-year-old said. "Not everybody is bad in Delhi, but the image of men is getting worse."
Taxi driver Narinder Singh agrees: "Due to these incidents we're losing respect".
Delhi's public transport operator, Delhi Transport Corporation, introduced mandatory annual gender training in 2014 – rolling it out to 80,000 rickshaw and 40,000 bus and taxi drivers, and recently bus security guards.
But a 24-year-old said, Sunita*, said programs fail to address the main source of danger for women in India: their homes. "The threat starts from the home, not from outside". Statistics show 86 per cent of rapes in India were committed by family, and people close to victims. But sexual violence within families remains taboo. "Even in high class societies it's very common but nobody believes it can happen – their eyes are closed," she said.
She said her family accused her of lying after she told them a cousin sexually abused her. Afterwards she vowed to stay silent, thinking if she spoke out, "I knew I would be blamed."
"Everyone knew what type of person he was, but nobody would say it because he was a boy," she said.
Changing mindsets in India will take "a very long time", Ms Vatsayan said, with change so far mostly restricted to urban pockets, while 70 per cent of the population lived in traditional, rural India.
Girls breaking norms in villages can face a backlash, said Niharika Baxla, a child development officer at YUWA in rural Jharkhand. The NGO aims to educate girls as a way of keeping them out of child marriages. Families there see education as an investment for boys and prefer daughters work, some going so far as to "lock them in their rooms" to stop them attending school, Ms Baxla said. But she said the girls had grown determined to study, seeing it as a chance for independence and a life "not like their mothers'".
(*) name has been changed
