Under crimes against women in 2020, the highest number were recorded under section 498A, which is cruelty by husband and relatives, says academic Mary E John. https://scroll.in/article/1037945/interview-despite-shraddha-walkar-murder-the-most-dangerous-space-for-women-is-their-marital-home
Now, “husband and relatives” is everybody’s definition of a woman’s family in India. This would make the Indian family responsible for the highest rate of crimes against women according to officially recorded FIRs. This outstrips, by far, recorded rapes and even cases of sexual harassment. However, dominant social ideas tell us that families are spaces of safety and that the greatest danger lurks from strangers in public spaces after nightfall.
But in reality, the most dangerous spaces for women are in their marital homes. These cases are happening in the most conventional arranged marriages, where women did indeed “listen to their parents” and elders.
How many single women are there in our society? Only the tiny numbers who never marry or think that they could actually live on their own, able to engage in relationships with some measure of freedom.
These numbers are so small though they ought to be much larger, because our society and our economy considers women as dependents, neither giving them value nor encouraging them to support themselves and those they care for.
We need to redefine what we mean by freedom and autonomy such that it has a more genuine, a more thorough basis from which women could decide whether they wish to live with someone or not, and whether they wish to marry or not.
The terrible murder of Shraddha Walkar should become a moment of greater introspection on the part of those who place so much faith in Indian marriages and families.
23/11/2022