The ‘unclean’ women

The idea that the doors of the house of God are open only for some and barred for others should be deeply offensive to any true believer of God. Unfortunately, these doors are often found to be closed for some, particularly ‘unclean’ women, i.e. menstruating women.

In Hinduism, the fear of pollution from such women is so deeply rooted that they are not allowed to enter temples and inner sanctums or visit pilgrimages, depending on the state of their wombs. Even today, little girls of 12-13 years are not allowed to partake in rituals during occasions like Durga Puja if they are menstruating. The religious and social norms do not consider the fact that for the kid the Puja is a festival, a once-in-a-year occasion. For the little soul it is not possible to understand the significance and dos and don’ts associated with her periods. Also, considering that the worship is of a Goddess, there is definitely something wrong about the idea that a Goddess, who is a symbol of femininity, would turn her face away from a worshipper who was undergoing a normal female biological process.

It is the same peculiar logic that women who are menstruating are ‘unclean’ is behind the prohibition that bars women between 10 to 50 years from going on the Sabarimala pilgrimage. Any woman, who is even capable of having children, or making love, or menstruating, is turned away. It is hard to fathom why any woman would want to worship a deity who saw her as somehow inferior by virtue of her sex. It’s much harder to imagine the depth of the fear that lies behind such thinking.  

Therefore, are the religious and social norms trying to suggest that only women who are sexless are clean in the eyes of God? People who created these norms perhaps forgot the fact that women’s biological process called menstruation is a creation of God, and this process plays a key role in the continuation of the world. Therefore, tagging a woman to be ‘unclean’ based on this is certainly unjustified.

One may argue that when these norms were created women were disallowed from entering religious places as in those days the female folk did not have proper protection gear like sanitary pads. But have the rules been changed now, when most women have this protection gear or are at least well aware of the requisite protection? No one has dared to do that, because no matter how much we speak about gender equality, women are still considered to be less important in certain aspects, such as religion. Sigh! 

Child Sexual Abuse

Most of us are aware of it, heard about it, many have even witnessed it or worse, experienced it, but not much can we do about it. Can we?

Yes, we are discussing one of the most unfortunate things of the society – child sexual abuse. Countless children across the world, including in India, are victims of this social evil. NGOs and other social welfare societies have been trying to combat this evil and help the victimised children wherever, whenever possible. Lot has been written and said about this abuse and has been portrayed in films like Pankh and I Am (the Sanjay Suri story). Yet, children continue to suffer.

It goes without saying that the children who suffer this bad experience often get into a state of trauma, which in many cases, remains all their life. In certain cases, the child fails to realise when he/she is being exploited and understands it when they are grown up. That realisation can also traumatise the child and haunt him/her almost at all times.

An incident of child sexual abuse can have such a deep impact on the mind of a child or a grown-up (in case of late realisation) that it may hurt his/her personal and professional life and may even make the child mentally unstable to get back to normalcy. While some manage to get over it or learn to live with the forgettable experience, most others get into a state of irreparable shock.

The Abusers

Why does child sexual abuse happen? To understand this, we need to first identify the victim and the culprit. The victim is the child, male or female, in the age group of 0-12 years, usually. The child may also be a eunuch, but that is a different genre of abuse altogether, which requires a separate discussion.

The culprit is the abuser, which is mostly male (I am yet to hear about any female abuser), whose age may range from about 20-70 years. In many cases, the culprit is someone within the family. In fact, majority of the cases of child sexual abuse involve uncles and cousins.

But what drives these people to commit such a heinous activity? The reasons vary from psychological to biological. The instances of child sexual abuse indicate that the desire to be involved in paedophile exists in many. Besides, frustration in sexual life or lack of sex also leads to people engaging in such activities.

Child sexual abuse is also a result of the attempt to fulfil hidden desires by the abuser. For child abusers, trying to get physical with a child is often an endeavour to fulfil their desire of being bisexual.  

From these instances, it is evident that these are not normal deeds, which indicate that the abusers are sick mentally. True, some are lecherous, but trying to have sex with a child doesn’t indicate a sound mind.

I am publishing this article on a day when this issue is being featured in Aamir Khan’s TV show ‘Satyamev Jayate’. A commendable effort no doubt, but is it enough to eliminate a social evil like child sexual abuse, which mainly happens within the confines of home?