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A Nice Slutwalk On A Sunday In New Delhi

I walked in a Slutwalk in New Delhi not because I’m anywhere close to being a slut, but because I don’t want to be treated like one.  I don’t want my teenage daughter to be treated like one either, so we walked together.  I walked despite my dislike of the word slut and my initial reservations. The thought of young women walking through the streets of Delhi in revealing clothing was not only scary but would have also been totally counter-productive.   The protest would have been grist to every pervy mill.  Yippee, go watch women in underwear walk on the streets!

In the weeks leading up to the walk, the papers carried slightly gleeful reports of men who were promising to come and watch the Slutwalk in order to film it.  They said they would have mobile phones to record the procession and then broadcast it.   As it turned out, the sleazy element was completely missing from last Sunday’s Slutwalk.  Whether it was the hot, humid weather that deterred them, or the lack of flesh on show, our walk through the streets of central Delhi was free of any unpleasantness.

For those of you who may not know about Slutwalks, the concept kicked off in Canada,  in April of this year, to protest a police officer’s remark implying that if women dressed like sluts, they, well, they sort of deserved it. “It” being sexual assault (and rape, I imagine). Large protest marches have subsequently taken place in Toronto, all over the US, in Mexico, London -  and now in New Delhi, India.

Delhi is no Toronto, so there were no young women defiantly wearing fish net tights and skimpy outfits, deliberately making themselves look sluttish to make their point.  Instead, most protesters were demurely dressed.  Delhi is no London, so the crowds were thin, sadly.  But we walked. We walked through the streets carrying our Hindi placards as part of the first Slutwalk in the subcontinent.  We may only have been a few hundred women on that last Sunday in July, but the very fact that a Slutwalk took place at all in Delhi, India, is cause for celebration.   The national and international press covered our walk in an overwhelmingly positive way, so those few hours of sweltering heat were so worth it.

A Slutwalk In New Delhi Is Particularly Relevant

Delhi is not a safe place for women to be out on the streets, and even a middle-aged foreigner such as myself is subject to staring and pointing and comments, and even the occasional grope.  For the girls and young women who travel to college and work on overcrowded buses, the city can be a nightmare.  My own teenage daughter has been groped on the steps of a 5-star hotel, but fought back  – as taught -  punching, kicking and scratching the man, screaming at the top of her voice.

There is a certain sector of men in Delhi who feel they can literally grope a woman with impunity, secure in the knowledge that lots of girls will endure such humiliation, rather than make a fuss.  The police force is largely male, so even reporting sexual attacks to the authorities is often a trauma for women.

Given the vast differences of class, education, background, the whole 9-yards, really, in a huge city such as Delhi, you end up with villagers and urban chicks traveling together on jam-packed buses.  The villager’s wife, more often than not, will have been left behind in the village, while the man goes looking for work in the big city. His wife will always be discreetly covered from head-to-toe and under the firm tutelage of her mother-in-law back in the village.  The young Delhi girl, alone, in her tight jeans and T-shirt, going to college -  well, you don’t need me to spell it out.

“Eve-teasing” is the Indian term for sexual attacks on women, a coy phrase that masks the stark, ugly reality of sexual harassment.  An Eve-teaser doesn’t sound quite as frightening as a sexual molester, now, does it ?

Change Is Afoot In New Delhi

So the Delhi Slutwalk was a major step in – well, yes, in what direction ?  Obviously, no one honestly expects one walk to change a city’s mindset, but the very fact that hundreds of  women (some with babies or children), grannies, and even men came out to walk and protest against sexual harassment on a baking hot Sunday morning shows that some change is afoot.

At some point, a rather puzzled TV reporter asked me, “Madam, you are rather senior, why are you walking ?”  I smiled through gritted teeth at the ageism, because I knew I was live on Hindi TV, and I told her I was Slutwalking for all the young women of Delhi.  This is true.  But, I was also Slutwalking so that perhaps, one day, I can walk down the street in my south Delhi neighborhood without being stared at…or groped.

image:  Provided by the author