‘41 per cent of girls face violence before the age of 19’

Addressing the college students at an awareness programme on violence against women in Madurai on Monday, Fatima, founder and executive director of the Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED) began her speech in an unusual style. She saw boys and girls sitting on either side of the hall and asked them to mingle and sit with their friends. To her disappointment, only four students crossed sides. 

“Violence on girls is because of this segregation, but one percentage of students are willing to change,” she began. Fatima said that violence starts at a very early age for women and 41 percentage of the girls under the age of 19 are subjected to violence. “Six out of 10 married women are subjected to domestic violence because women are seen as a kind of property by men,” she added. Taking on precautionary weapons for women to be prepared for an untoward situation, she said, “In the UK, women wear pink plastic rings which has sharp edges and pepper spray are widely available here. Why should women alone fight against violence and why men will not realise and stop the violence?” She further claimed that organisations such as Sisters Against Violence and Extremism (SAVE) were taking the issue of violence against women on a global scale and their main targets are mothers. 

“The mothers need to teach their sons about the importance of women and to stop violence against them,” she said. Speaking at the event, Kathir, executive director of Evidence, an NGO that fights for the rights of Dalits, said only two to three percentage of people participate in protests organised against atrocities on women while the rest remain mute spectators. He recalled the history of women education in India and said, “Only education for women can change the dynamics in their favour.” An awareness campaign on violence against women, launched at the event, will travel over 2,000 kilometres and cover all nine southern districts of the state before culminating in Madurai on December 12.