WOMEN SAFETY

Over the last few years , the issue of Women's safety has become a major focus of public attention and concern. Women face high levels of violence. They are certainly unsafe on streets, running the daily risk of harassment, attack, assault, rape and murder. The traditional approach to women's safety is based on restrictions and fear. Women are told to stay away from places and situations that are potentially violent, to avoid public spaces and stay at home as much as possible, not to go out at night, not to travel alone, not to protest if someone misbehaves with them and so on.This restrictive approach does not really make women safer - if anything, it increases their vulnerability by forcing them to live in fear and creating the feeling in their minds of being helpless victim. Violence against women is not just a women's concern. Women's safety and security cannot be ensured through the efforts of women's organisation alone, no matter how committed or active they are. We believe that making women safer will have beneficial consequences for all citizens, and can happen only through partnerships between women and women's organisations, citizen's groups and community organisations, the police and law enforcement agencies, the administration and elected representatives. Discussions on women's safety must therefore begin from the recognition of women's right to a life free of violence. From this perspective , the responsibility for preventing violence and making women feel secure lies with society as a whole, not with women alone.
Although efforts have been taken to improve the status of women, the constitutional dream of gender equality is miles away from becoming a reality. The dominant tendencies have always been to confine women and women's issues in the private domain.