Forget Pepper Spray: Indian Women Use Martial Arts to Protect Themselves

According to a 2006 National Crime Records Bureau report, 18 women become victims of crime every hour in India. The number of women raped every day has risen to 53 -- a nearly 700 percent increase since 1971. India ranked fifth out of 84 countries studied by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in 2006, with 19,000 reported rapes per year. Even though this is far behind the United States, which stands at the top of the ladder with 95,000 reported rapes each year, we ought to treat every single case of rape as inhuman and saddening.

Some women’s groups in India say that fewer than 2 percent of women who have been sexually assaulted in India actually come forward to report the crime, largely because this could undermine a woman’s chances at marriage. These groups also assert that the conservative attitudes of Indian families and the public harassment the victim is put through during questioning in court to prove that she was raped often leads to further social ostracism. Many Indian women would rather suffer in silence than appeal for justice and see the culprit convicted.

Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) is an organization working for the improvement of laws related to violence against women. Lawyer and coordinator of HRLN’s Kolkata branch, Debashis Banerjee, says of the reluctance of victims to report this violence, “Although a majority of women experience some sort of sexual harassment in public places or at work, only a few speak up. Loss of job, social stigma and lack of family support are the main reasons why women remain mum. A lack of sexual harassment committees in the workplace make matters worse for working women who want to take up such matters but have no place to report sexual harassment. Now as more women have begun to step out for work, the situation is all the more grim.”

This cruel reality has spurred Indian women on: after all these years of subjection to social hierarchy, some women are finally stoking the fire within them and taking up self-defense training. Martial arts schools now teach women various techniques and strategies to combat sexual harassment. Yet while this personal decision to defend oneself would be considered an individual choice in many parts of the world, for Indian women it did not come easily.

Tired of facing regular harassment, Mrs. Swati Jhanwar decided to begin training in martial arts. Now a 2nd Degree Dan black belt in Karate and an instructor at a renowned Karate Do training center in Kolkata, she initially had a tough time convincing family members.

“When I decided to join Karate classes six years back, I found it difficult to convince my family about my purpose. They were skeptical and believed that martial arts were not for girls as it makes them lose their femininity. They’d rather lock girls indoors than allow them to learn how to tackle harassment in public places. It took lots of persuading for them to agree.”

Working women in urban metros like Kolkata and Mumbai are citing sexual assault as the main reason behind their decision to enroll at martial arts schools. Even teenage girls are becoming inspired to take up training in preparation for the expected tough times ahead.

Working women expose themselves to the most crimes against women happening in the country. Recent incidents like television journalist Saumaya Vishwanathan’s murder in south Delhi while she was returning from office after a night shift in October this year only reinforce the dangers women face.

Ours is a society where women are held responsible for every single crime committed against them and victimization, in terms of sexual harassment, is no exception. Women have grown up believing that it is their own fault when they are abused, be it through different forms of domestic violence or rape. When a woman is beaten by her husband if there is extra salt in the food, she imagines it to be her fault -- the same goes for incidences like Eve Teasing (sexual harassment) and molestation. Here, her liberal affluence is pointed out as the reason for her harassment. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time is another excuse offered against her. Another skewed justification is that she invites male attention by dressing provocatively. Notions like these are driven into a girl’s head right from the day she steps out of the house. When a woman complains, people scandalize her character instead of prosecuting the culprit, and so women simply accept the ugly situation.