Its sexist mentality, not girls using phones that leads to rapes

Image Source- VideoHive

Recently, UP Women Commission member have stated that girls using phone have lead to rapes. What more shocking is that this statement comes from a woman herself. Along with blaming girls for using phones, she has even blamed 'carelessness' of mothers for increase in rape cases.

Question that arises is- aren't even babies to school girls to old age women who don't use phones, have been victims of rape? What the phones have to do with rapes?

Yes, online sexual harrassments (in forms of morphed pics, sending non consenual pics of genitals, etc) do happen due to phone and social media. But if both boys and girls are taught to be respectful of others and their consent and be precautions on social media, then it would be reduced a lot. 

About her eloping statement, not everyone elopes. And some do due to controlling and toxic parents who refuses to accept their relationship due to societal standards, caste and religious differences. Checking kid's phone is violation of their privacy just as well. So no, parents shouldn't be checking their kid's phones but regularly educate them about pros and cons of social media, boundaries, consent, not to spread online hatred etc.

If a girl would be going on a road alone and if some creeps come near her, wouldn't phone help her to send emergency messages/notification for her safety to her close ones? I know its not full proof but it can help some bit.

Cases of boyfriends raping their girlfriends do happen in India and worldwide. For that, girl needs to be aware of the red flags in his behaviour from start of the relationship and not trust anyone blindly. But most importantly, boys need to learn to behave themselves.

One's daughter's safety is important for any parents. If you are a parent, ask her if she ever feels unsafe around anyone. If she is on phone for long time, just casually ask if she has any boyfriend in a ongoing funny conversation or while watching any romantic movie, but do not pest her for revealing about her relationship status (she might be just scrolling through memes when she looks at her phone and is smiling constantly). I saw this on Smile With Prachi's video which I agree with- If she does have a boyfriend and he comes to your home to pick her up for a date, call the boyfriend at your home for 5-6 minutes. Talk to him, get to know him without preconceived judgements. While they are to leave for the date, ask for his phone number. Tell him if her phone is out of range or unreachable, you can call on his number to know where your daughter is. And while you take his number down, call at the very same time to verify if its actually his number. Ask him to drop her back home by the curfew time and let your daughter know you would be waiting for her.

Rather than carelessness of girl's mother, at maximum what we can say is rapes can happen if guy's mother do not teach her son about respect and consent. But mothers cannot be blamed totally for it if the son receives sexist and sexually objectifying behaviour from wrong friends, pornography or untrusted sites on social media and Google, which does happens a lot now-a-days. Even fathers are responsible for teaching their sons basic respect and consent and everything related to this, age appropriately.

Rather than blaming girls for using phones (and even "sexually provocative dresses") and mothers, blame the sexually objectifying mentality. A victim is never at fault, the objectifying mentality is. Teach both sons and daughters about respect, consent, boundaries, correct use of phone and social media and other age appropriate sex education. And such victim-blaming and sexist minds should be dethroned from any position who blames girls for their rapes.