Available on. T he SlutWalk demonstrations became the talk of the town and reached Indian shores. Last year, Delhi and Mumbai saw demonstrations where women from all walks of life poured onto to the streets to raise their voices over "damaging stereotypes. Of course reclaiming the word slut in the movement, which has become synonymous to a protest against sexual violence, created a furore in the country.
But that did not stop Mumbai and Delhi to go ahead with the SlutWalk. A year on, SlutWalk has trundled into Kolkata. Wearing skimpy clothes and flaming red lipstick a group of students of Jadavpur University marched through the streets of the West Bengal capital on Thursday. A group of around youngsters marched from the varsity campus to Triangular Park challenging the stereotype that 'women are abused sexually because they dress up like sluts".
W omen and even men joined the SlutWalk to raise their voices against several incidents of alleged rape, at least two of which were described by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as "staged". Adding fuel to the fire, State Minister for Sports Madan Mitra had also questioned the integrity of the rape victim in the incident on Park Street in February.
A rmed with placards with slogans like 'My curves, my choice', 'My genitals do not define my gender', and 'No outfit is an invitation to rape' hundreds of protesters hoped to draw attention to the growing problem harassment and violence that women in Kolkata are facing. Y oung girls walked in all kinds of dresses right from sarees, salwar kameez to jeans and skirts to challenge the beliefs of those who accuse street sexual harassment victims of dressing immodestly in public.
We are told to dress appropriately, to come back home on time, to not attract attention to ourselves. And the worst of all, we are expected to accept sexual harassment or forms of eve teasing as a part and parcel of our societal culture," complained Kolkata University student Priyanka Dutta, one of the participants. P articipants painted themselves with slogans besides carrying posters and wearing painted T-shirts to spread the message that women have the right to wear what they want without fearing any kind of abuse.
