
You must have seen a pic on facebook which depicts 2 scenes, each from a different part of the world. The first one depicts a scene that is labeled "
Western" and the second one says "
Indian". The "
Western" pic shows a young woman confidently walking down a street, in a blouse and a skirt, and a few guys standing in the background, who don't take notice of her. The "
Indian" pic also shows a woman walking down a street, wearing a sari / burkha, and two guys on a bicycle who have parked their bicycle in the middle of the street, just so that they can stare at the woman and comment on her. This pic shows the typical "sarakchhap" Indian mentality. If you're a guy, you may not agree that such assh***s exist, but ask any girl, who is above 16 years of age, and she will tell you a similar incident that happened to her.
There is no denying that such incidents happen to girls all over the country every single day. Vulgar comments are passed on girls on streets. Stop me if you haven't heard it before. A group of guys passing vulgar comments on girls returning from school. Two guys on a bike teasing girls on a scooty. Guys, who think of themselves as studs, teasing and harassing girls, asking them to be their girlfriends. And, nowadays, this harassing has gone up to a whole new level. Girls are being harassed via cell phones and social media. And the worst part comes when this harassing takes a huge wrong turn, Rape.
From now on, when I use the word "people", I'll be referring to the male demographic.
Why do these people do it?
The people who participate in such activity are generally 17 - 24 year olds. One of the reasons they do it, in cold technical terms, is due to their lack of control on their hormones. It's the age when curiosity for the opposite sex rises. And this curiosity is at it's peak. It's natural; nothing to be shy about. But this lack of control on their raging hormones combined with their poor moral compass, allows their conscience to act on their "impure" thoughts. But this is just one of the reasons. You'd notice that the above mentioned reason is independent of race and / or culture. Therefore, we still have to figure out, why this is so common in our society?
Why does this happen more often in our society?
Ours is a hypocrite society. Our culture, that we respect so much( *eyeroll* ), tells us that "Women are another form of goddesses; Women are sacred for they are the ones who give birth to new life". This "knowledge" has been passed down to us by our ancestors. Yet, for centuries, we've chosen to domesticate women. And, even now, their is a huge part of society, not just men, but whole families, who believe " The man is supposed to work and provide for his family; The woman is supposed to care of the family and raise the kids; The End".
Almost all Indian TV shows and Cinema are based on the this typical Indian thinking. So the Media shows a very narrow image of women in society. From movies to TV, women are being objectified, treated as models, shown to be defenceless, shown to display the attitude - "Kitna bhi anyay kar lo mere upar, main kuch nahi bolungi". The women, by the media, are portrayed to be the most helpless creature in the world, as the "abla nari", who does not have a say in any matter. But then, the guy comes along who's responsibilty is to protect the woman. Media shows that the woman is nothing without a man with her. She needs a man to stay strong. This is the image of woman portrayed by the Media. Now, people from my generation or above won't get affected much by watching such pathetic shows or movies. But think about the effect these shows have on the kids who are in their teenage. When mothers are watching such soap operas with their kids, in the subconscious, what the kids get to learn from these shows is that the women are supposed to be only housewives, just as they showed on TV. They might get the idea that no matter how much we harass woman, they'll never be able to do anything. This is what they show on such TV shows. The woman is always stuck in the cycle of endless "atyachaar". Till she's in pain, the shows go on. And when the ratings go down, the show is cancelled.
A few days back I read an article, "Heroes or Molesters", which mentioned a scene from the movie "Kick" where Salman is pulling the Jacqueline's skirt with his teeth and she's got no problem with it, rather she's enjoying it. When I watched that scene, I was like, "This is a commercial motion picture. What else should I expect!? Bakwaas dikhate hain". But think what would've gone through the head of a 15 year old kid. According to him, a stud followed a sexy girl 24/7 everywhere, teased her all the time, pulled her skirt with his teeth( which btw can easily be filed as sexual harassment ) till the girl finally gave up and became his girlfriend. In short, if you harass the girl, you have a crush on, she'll become your girlfriend. And it's true that Bollywood stars are considered role-models by kids. Why shouldn't the kids follow what these superstars do in the movies!? The kids learn what they see. And what they see isn't healthy for women in India.
Another instance, Imagine a hero on a bike, going for college, passes by the heroine. He suddenly stops, turns his bike around passes by the heroine passing a comment. He looks cool doing it. The heroine smiles, blushes and hides her face behind her books. But that's a movie. In reality, when a guy passes comment on a girl, the girl gets scared like hell, runs off to her home and starts crying in front of her parents. And she says that she doesn't want to got out in public ever again.

Such Media brainwashes a kid into thinking that harassing a girl is okay. He does not see this as harassing at all. After all the years of watching Indian media, he thinks of himself as the Hero of his own life time movie. He's the hero and the girl, he has a crush on, is his heroine. But heroes get more girls, other than just the heroine, right!? So, he can afford to harass other girls too. One other thing, a hero has to prove his manliness to the world. So what does he do? He goes out with his friends, gets into fights for no reasonable cause, gangs up on school and college girls, etc. This is how these "sarackchhap" guys are created.

So, finally, I would like to say that Media has a big influence in any society. It moulds the future generation. Subconsciously, the Media has had a big impact on us and our way of thinking. Realize it and get over the typical Indian mentality. Just because your mother is a housewife and all the other women you've seen on TV are obedient slave-like housewives, doesn't mean that all "nice" girls should be that way.
These were some of the reasons I could think of "Why harassing is so common in India?" I would like you to share your views with me. Please do.