Single and preyed upon -ToI

Single and preyed upon By Govind Kamat Maad, TNN | Dec 20, 2012, 02.58 AM IST MARGAO: Goa's western influences in dress and culture and its overall broad outlook are often a double-edged sword. Ask its women. "I was waiting for a bus at the SBI stop in Margao around 11am on a Monday when two guys while passing me said, 'ieta go?' (are you coming?)," recalls Natasha D'Souza, a resident of Comba. Though she chose to ignore the indecent proposition, the incident, says the 20-year-old, left her both, seething and scared. Which is how Sharada Naik felt too, when she and her friend Nandita Menezes decided to take a short stroll on the beach after dinner at a prominent shack in Baga. "We were followed by a guy who kept asking us if we wanted to 'go disco' with him," remembers the 25-year-old from Saligao. The two cut short their walk and hurried home. Incidents like these and more are why women's activists insist Goa is no longer a safe place for women. Writer and activist Hema Naik, in fact, says Goa has become as dangerous for women as Delhi and other metros. Pointing to the recent rape of a school student by two persons including a classmate, she says parents are worried about the safety of their children, especially since the accused often go scot free. In this case too, though the classmate, a minor himself, who raped the girl in the toilet of the cinema complex, is under remand, the other person who raped her in a secluded place is yet to be traced. Auda Viegas of Bailancho Ekvott opines that women in Goa are not safe, especially at night. "With the rise in prostitution activities in Goa, the streets of Goa are no longer safe for single women at night. Men in cars proposition women, irrespective of how they are dressed, and make vulgar gestures," says Viegas. Naik says young women from economically-backward classes and from rural areas in Goa are very vulnerable to sexual assault. "This is primarily because there is a craze among the young girls to visit beauty parlours and to flaunt expensive phones. Since they cannot get money from home to spend on such obsessions, they walk into the traps of men who entice them with their riches. In villages, though such incidents are on the rise, they are not reported at the police stations for protecting 'family honour'," Naik elaborated. Viegas demanded that a proper system be put in place so that women "know that they are safe and secure in their own land." Naik underscored the need for every person to be sensitive towards crimes against women. "More than counselling, what is important is a sense of responsibility towards vulnerable women-be they minors or single women-by providing them with a sense of security. The outlook of men towards women, as mere objects of sexual lust, should change," Naik stressed. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Single-and-preyed-upon/articleshow/17684829.cms