Even the most regressive imagination can't really correlate mobile phones with crime against women. If at all, a device that helps connect with emergency numbers can prevent rapes and other crimes.
But a member of the Uttar Pradesh Women's Commission Meena Kumari chooses to differ on the subject. While responding to a question on increasing rape cases and how did the state plan to curb crimes against women, Meena Kumari told media persons, "Girls should not be given mobile phones because they talk to boys and later run away with them."
The lesson in moral policing didn't stop there. She also added that young girls should be monitored round the clock. "I appeal to parents to not give mobile phones to daughters. If they do, phones should be checked regularly. The crimes against women are due to negligence of mothers," she added during a public hearing of complaints pertaining women in Aligarh district.
The statement misinterpreted: Meena Kumari
Soon enough, her comments caused an uproar. With social media, politicos of the region and Chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women, Swati Maliwal strongly condemning the statement. Responding to the criticism, Meena Kumari later clarified that her comments were misunderstood. "My statement has been misinterpreted. What I said was that parents should check whether their children are using mobile phones for studies or other purposes. I never said that if girls use phones they run away with boys," she told news agency ANI.
No end to retarded statements
The 'mobile phone-rape cases' statement comes only a few months after a member of the National Commission for Women Chandramukhi Devi said that the gang rape and murder case in UP was, "woman's fault." In the past, from Oriental dish Chowmein to girls' choice of clothing, especially jeans have been similarly linked to increase in rape cases.
No one to date forgotten the statement from Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat as per which ripped jeans led to increasing crimes against women, including rape. In 2012, Haryana khap attributed rapes to the consumption of chowmein.
Twitter teaches a lesson
Meanwhile, social media and society itself already struggling with gender biases and deep–rooted misogyny, lost their cool. "No ma'am, a phone in a girl's hand is not a reason for rape. The reason for rape is a bad social system that affects the mindset of criminals," Maliwal wrote on her Twitter account.
