Awareness about rape

Rape has become the current trendy subject gifted to every woman regardless of
age, religion, caste or creed. A fate so cruel, even beyond death awaiting for every
female outside their doors and sometimes even inside the safe-place they call
home. There is not a single piece of news that could escape the devastating
occurrence of at least one barbaric, merciless rape.
While it is spine-chilling and scary, end of life kind of issue to the victims that are
on the receiving end of all the trauma along with victim-shaming given for free, it
became a common, no big deal for the oppressor who faces almost no
repercussions for this heinous and inhuman act. There is not a single female in
this planet that has not faced harassment of any form. All women subconsciously
live with the knowledge that it could be them next, or some loved one they know,
every time they come across the term ‘rape’. This misogynistic and patriarchal
society almost normalised women being harassed in one way or the other and do
not let go of even the slightest opportunity to suppress and control women. As if
centuries of oppression, denial of basic human rights, harassment and murder is
not enough, statistics state that every 16 minutes a women gets raped
somewhere in India.
The most important solution to this monstrous issue is awareness and education.
Proper sex education and consent classes have proved to bring down harassment
numbers. As all problems are better dealt at the root, these classes should be
mandatory for school and college children for positively affecting their mind-set
right from when they’re young. Consent classes of Nairobi, Kenya that changed
young children’s perceptive on gender, proves as the best example for this claim.
These classes were conducted by No means No Worldwide, Ujaama Africa, UK
Department for International Development since 2009 and have reached about
180000 boys and girls. Following these classes, there has been an average of 51%
decrease in the incidents of rape and the percentage of boys who intervened in
an incident of harassment increased from 26% to 74%. These classes do not just
teach consent but also indulge in topics like positive masculinity, sexuality, gender
and teach self defence. Sexual consent classes are also conducted for university
students at various universities in the UK following which there have been rising
debates on the need for them. These classes can help students better understand
gender equality and break gender stereotypes and injustice. This might be the
most important step towards equality that should be necessarily undertaken by
every country and law.