GS4 · UPSC Mains
A social experiment "slap her" was conducted to evaluate the attitude of boys in the age group 6-13 years towards violence against women. Experiment started with simple questions where boys were asked their name, aspirations and dreams. Then a girl of their age was introduced to them and a casual conversation was facilitated between boys and girls. During the experiments, boys were instructed to engage in simple activities like hand shaking, high fiving etc. with girls. In the end, boys were asked to slap the girl. Upon hearing the instruction boys looked confused initially, but ultimately all the boys refused to slap the girl. The experiments showed that at a younger age, boys believed that it was wrong for them to hit another person, especially a girl. This experiment also suggested that violence against women is not something that comes naturally to boys. However, this attitude changes drastically as boys grow up to be adults. Data from the National Family Health Survey-4 revealed that for the entire country, 42% of men think that a husband was justified in hitting or beating his wife. A more worrying trend was that an even larger portion, 52%, of women believe that it was acceptable for them to be hit by their husbands. National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data shows an increasing trend of domestic violence against women in the country. Further, the Covid-19 induced lockdowns brought a shadow pandemic for women where they were exposed to higher degree of domestic violence. Based on the above observations, answer the following questions: a) Why does the attitude of boys change towards girls when they grow up? b) What explains the higher acceptance of domestic violence among women than men? c) What can be done to bring desirable changes in the attitude of society towards women?
GS4 · Attitude — content, structure, function; influence & relation with thought & behaviour; moral & political attitudes; social influence & persuasion
| Topper | Rank | Source | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mehak Jain | — | Forumias | p.52 |
| Ishita Rathi | — | Forumias | p.53 |