On Sunday July 24st the first Slut Walk will take place in Delhi. Hooray! Many Slut Walks have been held across the world, but never in Delhi. And we certainly need one. Not because we want to be able to wear short skirts, but because we need to help change the mindset.
The phenomena started after a police officer in Toronto made a comment at the York University that 'women should avoid dressing up like sluts in order not to be victimised'. Two months later on April 3, 2011, the city witnessed a thousand people on the streets protesting against this derogatory remark in the form of Slut Walks. The women got down on the streets wearing revealing outfits and T-shirts with the word 'slut' written on them. Soon, people in North America, Australia and Britain began organizing slut walks on their own raising their voices against the men who blamed women for being raped.
Why Delhi?
In India, and especially Delhi aka "India's rape capital", sexual harassment and rape are commonplace. In India every 26 minutes a woman is molested, every 34 minutes a rape takes place and every 43 minutes a woman is kidnapped (source: the home ministry's national crime records bureau). The brunt of this happens in Delhi with 489 rapes reported last year.
Dates
On the 16th of July a special debate will be organized at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi from 4-7pm to talk about the issues related to sexual harassment, rape and eve teasing with experts, activists and parents.
The actual SlutWalk will be held on 24 july. For the walk women can wear whatever they want, because the point of the walk is that it is not the clothes you wear that cause harassment.
We love this initiative not because of the walk itself, but because of the debate it has opened. It has kicked off the kind of discussion — about personal safety, sexuality and class — that is seldom heard here.
