'I was six or seven years old when I was first molested': Watch women describe their first experiences of sexual harassment
The harassment starts young and carries on way past their youth
Accounts of children being sexually harassed are more common than they should be.
The video above, made by Old Delhi films, has women describing their first brush with sexual harassment, starting at ages as early as six or seven years old. For some it is a little later, but no less scarring.
Journalistic accounts of sexual harassment often miss the horrifying and intimidating nature of these commonplace occurrences that mark the childhoods and teenage years of girls in India. The experience of a 14-year-old girl having to see a man rubbing himself can be confusing and scary, and, without the right counselling, a cause for shame as well.
By the time girls reach adulthood in India, they are already used to unwanted sexual advances from men. They are aware why society asks them to not go out late at night, or not wear what can be perceived as provocative clothing.
The testimonies of the women here blame society at large for the perpetuation of a mindset that has legitimised these sort of occurrences. One problematic statement made by one of the participants though is that mothers don't teach their sons properly, making the raising of children an exclusive duty of women.
Fathers too can be blamed for not teaching their sons properly. Making noise and not suffering silently is the plea they make at the end, but one must make the right noise.
Sexual harassment of women in public spaces is a problem that restricts women's freedom, and makes way for narratives of "don't go out late", "don't wear that", "that's not a safe place for a woman", etc. These issues need to be addressed, and talking about these encounters is an important beginning.
While this video focuses on the experiences of women, young boys too are victims of sexual abuse. The Government of India's Study on Child Abuse: India 2007 suggests that every second child/adolescent in the country faces some form of sexual abuse, and it is equally prevalent in both sexes. The stigma of being victim to sexual offences makes it rarer for crimes against boys being reported.
