No, Minister. Women won’t skirt the issue

Indian ministers are no strangers to the foot-in-the-mouth syndrome, with their comments largely falling into the “a woman is always to blame” territory. This week, the tradition continued when Mahesh Sharma, the Minister of State for Culture and Tourism blurted out that female tourists in India should refrain from wearing skirts, earning him the collective ire of not only netizens, but also tourism industry officials and women’s commissions. Referring to a slightly embarrassing “welcome kit” given out to all foreign visitors at the country’s airports, the minister said: “The kit includes a card with dos and don’ts such as, do not venture out alone at night in small towns, do not wear skirts…” Even more embarrassingly, he fell back on that jaded, parochial postulation of comparing Indian culture with the West. After the backlash he faced, the minister hastily backpedalled on his comments, muttering that he meant it as an “advisory” to follow only while in religious places. Ironical, then that an American filmmaker told the New York Times about being touched and harassed in India when she actually wore traditional clothes. So skipping the skirts didn’t do much for her, right Mr. Minister?

In any case of sexual harassment or rape, anywhere in the world, it’s not lust or sexual frustration that drives the act as much a male mindset that seeks to dominate and exercise power over women and “put them in their place”. Crimes and harassment of women are aimed at demoralising and dehumanising them, lessening their value to nothing more than as a denominator of sexuality. Speaking on an economic scale, it’s not like the Indian tourism industry can afford the fallout from such irresponsible statements. For a country of its size and historical, cultural and scenic vastness, India saw just over 8 million tourists visiting in 2015, compared to a staggering 29 million in Thailand. Notch it up partly to stringent visa regulations, but widespread opinion also tacks it to the increasing crimes against women and a suffocating culture that not only perpetuates it, but indulges in victim-blaming as well. Perhaps the likes of Sharma would do well to remember that, as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, tweeted, “Women had greater freedom to wear clothes of their choice during vedic times than they have in Modi times.”