By Vaishnavi Singh Dabi, Final year student, Christ University
I was born in Bengaluru and raised by very liberal parents, along with an older brother. I've been independent since the age of 8; playing on the city streets till late in the evening and travelling to dance classes all by myself.
Yet, the love for this city is festooned with fear and dread.
Growing up as an adolescent girl in Bengaluru wasn't the best experience. I can recall a hundred occasions where I've been stalked, teased, grabbed by the behind while walking with a friend, have received messages and calls from filthy men, hooting and what not.
These kind of things do NOT NEED TO happen, Mr Parameshwara.
Growing up with my freedom taught me to protect myself, I joined Mixed Martial Arts classes and learnt the local language too, but none of these things helps when you're in trouble.
Men in the city believe they have the upper hand, a belief that was strengthened by a recent observation regarding the way women driv ers are treated by men.
I got into a small accident, and I was surrounded by a swarm of men staring at me and blaming me, despite not having witnessed anything -this happened right behind my college too.
I also realized that your good male friends have very little say when there's a troop of men against a single woman; without a man supporting a woman, there's no way she won't be taken for granted.
The police isn't of much help either, they silently asked me to finish the job on `the side'.
Since all these things happened in broad daylight, you can only imagine how much courage a girl needs to muster up to just to walk out of her house at night.
In my opinion, the men in our city are only getting more violent; it's a woman's courage that makes the man aggressive and provokes him to show the girl his `power'.There is no equality here.
The government, our families and citizens need to believe in change and put an end to this.
Men need to change the way they think, education needs to emphasize the importance of gender equality.
Women and men need to understand that if we need to establish equality, we need to start with radical feminism, because only then will we be able to make any sort of impact.
(As told to Niharika Alva)
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