Rethinking Problem of Sexual Violence: A Shift from Gender-Conflict to Gender- Reconciliation

My central argument is that the interlinked issues of power, violence and justice, apart from being contextualized with the 'lived experience' of victims of sexual violence of any kind, must be approached with an eye on gender-reconciliation. Patriarchy, its ideology and vision of social and state structures has shaped perceptions of the people especially of the higher castes regarding the dangerous nature of female sexuality and the urgency of controlling it by any means for the health and stability of the system. One of the most effective strategies for replacing the patriarchal culture by humanistic values is to change the content and direction of socialization of boys and girls. In order to reinforce the process, school text-book s and children's literature require a new orientation. The second strategy is to recast those cultural symbols which project female body as merely an instrument for ensuring the purity of race and thus the line of succession in almost all hierarchical societies, more so in the Indian case. I shall also argue for initiating a dialogue between the spokesmen of patriarchy and advocates of human rights for women. In which ways will it create a healthy and equitable gender- relations ? Last but not the least is the agency of enlightened young women in not only redefining womanhood but also in creating a gender-sensitive society, thus marginalizing the violent masculinities . Recent protests by a large number of girls against persistent sexual harassment and short-sighted policies of administration in the Banaras Hindu University showed that patriarchal values can no longer arrest the emergence of a new generation of self -reliant women who want to create a new vocabulary of power governing social relationships. I shall conclude my presentation by showing clippings from a film NH 10 [ released in 2014]