苦恼:性骚扰之苦困扰印度女性

Juhi Nondi, a 20-year-old college student, takes the train every day to and from school here, toting a satchel of textbooks and looking stylish in her skinny jeans and T-shirts─and long, sharp fingernails.
朱希?侬迪(Juhi Nondi)是一名20岁的大学女生，她每天都要提着一个书包乘火车在加尔各答郊区的巴拉萨特(Barasat)和学校之间往返。她穿着紧身牛仔裤和T恤衫，外型时尚，而且还留着锋利的长指甲。

'They're not just for fashion,' she says of her pink nails, 'but also for self-defense.'
她在谈到自己的粉色指甲时说道：“留着它们不只是为了时尚，也为了保护自己。”

Aggressive sexual harassment is a daily part of her commute in this bustling suburb of Kolkata. A man grabbed her breast one morning, she says. Another day, someone grabbed her hip. Friends carry chili powder, she says, to throw in the eyes of an assailant, a sort of homemade pepper spray.
极具侵犯性的性骚扰成为了她在喧闹的巴拉萨特坐火车往返学校的日常组成部分。她说有一天早晨一名男子袭击了她的胸部，还有一天被人捏了臀部。她的朋友们会携带辣椒粉，将一种自制的辣椒喷雾喷进袭击者的眼中。

'If I'm even a half-hour late coming home, my parents panic,' Ms. Nondi says.
她说：“哪怕我只晚了半个小时到家，我的父母就会很恐慌。”

Barasat, which boasts a shopping mall, a KFC restaurant and a growing number of women in the workplace, is a typical, if modest Indian economic success story. But it is typical of urban India in another way, too: Here and nationwide, women say harassment of women is a fixture of daily life.
巴拉萨特有一家购物中心和一家肯德基(KFC)，工作场所也出现了越来越多的女性。该地区在经济上取得的成功（即便只是一般的成功）算得上是印度的一个典型。此外，它在另一个方面也是印度各城市的典型──在这儿以及印度各地，女性们都表示性骚扰已成为她们日常生活中的常事。

In December, India's climate of sexual violence burst onto the world's consciousness after a young woman on a bus in New Delhi was so brutally gang-raped and assaulted that she died of her injuries. That attack provoked nationwide protests and prompted national introspection about the broader spectrum of harassment─from stalking to groping─that often goes unpunished and can lead to more aggravated assault, experts say.
去年12月，继一名在新德里搭乘巴士的年轻女孩因遭到残忍的轮奸和殴打而受伤去世之后，国际社会突然意识到了印度的性暴力风气。此次暴力事件在全印度引发了抗议活动，促使印度国民开始反思性骚扰的问题──从跟踪到抚摸身体，性骚扰的形式越来越多样，而且据专家们称，这些行为常常不会遭到惩罚，因而可能会引发更加恶劣的侵犯。

Here in Barasat, interviews with two dozen women yielded consistent stories of recent and repeated harassment. Men trail women on foot or on scooters, making crude remarks and grabbing at the scarf worn to cover the chest. It happens at the train station, they said, in the fish-market lane, on the road to the university and outside the police station.
在巴拉萨特，记者对二十余名女性的采访发现，她们基本都在最近遭遇过骚扰或者以前曾经不断地受到骚扰。常常有男子走路或骑摩托车跟踪她们，对她们说粗野露骨的话，伸手抓她们围着遮挡胸部的围巾。她们说她们常在火车站、鱼市的小路、去往学校的路上甚至是警局门外遭到骚扰。

Many women interviewed complained that police do little to stop it. One local officer, when asked about that by a reporter, responded: 'If these incidents don't happen, what will happen to our jobs?'
许多受访女性控诉警方几乎没有采取什么行动来制止性骚扰。巴拉萨特当地一名警员在回应一名记者对此事的提问时说道：“如果不出现这些事情，我们的饭碗怎么办？”

A senior Barasat police official said the police take all complaints seriously. The police said the department couldn't provide hard numbers on harassment complaints, arrests or convictions.
当地一名高级警员称，警方对所有投诉都认真对待。警方称，警局不能提供有关性骚扰投诉、拘捕或定罪的确切数字。

Women say they travel in groups, some carrying sharp objects─safety pins, pocket knives─to discourage harassers. Still, occasionally there are more serious assaults. In early 2011, a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death trying to protect his 22-year-old sister, Rinku Das, as she returned home one evening from her call-center job.
女士们说她们会结伴出行，有些人还会携带安全别针和小折刀等锋利物品以赶跑骚扰者。尽管如此，偶尔还是会出现非常严重的袭击。2011年初的一天夜里，一名16岁的男孩在护送自己的姐姐、22岁的琳库?达斯(Rinku Das)从客服中心下班的途中因试图保护她而被人刺死。

As usual, her brother picked her up on his bicycle from the station, Ms. Das says. Three men blocked the bike, she says, poured alcohol on her, and attacked her brother as he sprang to her defense.
达斯回忆道，那天晚上弟弟像往常一样骑着自行车到车站接她，三名男子堵住了自行车的去路，往她身上倒酒，并在弟弟奋力保护她时对他发起攻击。

As her brother was being beaten with bamboo canes, Ms. Das says, she pounded on a nearby senior police officer's bungalow. The guards outside told her they couldn't help. 'I screamed and shouted for help in the middle of the street,' she says.
她说，在弟弟遭受竹条殴打时，她跑到附近一名高级警官的住处前用力敲门，门外的警卫告诉她他们无能为力。她说：“我站在街中央尖叫，大声呼救。”

Kalyan Banerjee, the main police officer dealing with Ms. Das's case, said the bungalow guards aren't allowed to leave their posts.
处理达斯一案的主要警员卡尔扬?班纳吉(Kalyan Banerjee)说，警官住处的警卫不得离开岗位。

The three alleged attackers face murder charges and have pleaded not guilty. They are in judicial custody.
那三名嫌疑人现面临谋杀指控，他们都辩护自己无罪，目前正遭到司法监禁。

After the killing, police say, they intensified patrols, put more plainclothes officers on the street and opened a new women's police station across from the Barasat Government College. From there, 18 female officers patrol high-frequency harassment areas.
警方称他们在这起命案发生之后加强了巡逻，增派了更多便衣警察上街，并在巴拉萨特政府学院(Barasat Government College)对面新设了一家女子警局。来自该警局的18名女警员会在性骚扰高发地区巡逻。

But the roots of the problem run deep, starting in childhood. Across India, daughters are often less valued than sons─a reality that shows up in India's skewed gender ratios.
然而，性骚扰问题的源头根深蒂固，从人们的童年时期便已开始。在印度各地，女儿往往没有儿子受重视，这一事实也在印度失衡的性别比例中得到体现。

India has 37 million more men than women, partly because the preference for sons prompts sex-selective abortions and infanticide. Women also have a higher overall mortality rate than men, partly because of bias and neglect over a lifetime, according to recent research, as well as mortality during childbirth.
印度的男性数量比女性多出3700万，部分是因为对儿子的偏爱导致人们选择性别堕胎和杀婴。此外，近期也有研究显示，女性的总死亡率也高于男性，其中一部分原因是她们在一生当中都遭到歧视和忽视，另一部分原因则是有些女性在分娩期间死亡。

Some argue that the harassment is a byproduct of economic growth in places like Barasat. A few decades ago, Barasat was a dirt-road town of a few thousand people. Today it is a growing suburb of sprawling Kolkata, with apartment buildings and gated communities with names like Fortune Township. The population tops a quarter-million.
有些人认为，性骚扰是像巴拉萨特这样的地方经济发展的副产物。在几十年前，巴拉萨特还是一个只有数千人口、全是泥土路的小镇，如今它成为了不断扩张的加尔各答的郊区，处于发展之中，兴建起一座座公寓楼和拥有像“Fortune Township”这样的名字的封闭式社区，现在其人口超过了25万。

Men and women alike have benefited greatly, but society remains deeply conservative. 'For generations, men haven't seen women so empowered,' says Mayank Saksena, an executive at consulting firm Jones Lang LaSalle who has developed real estate in Barasat and has studied the town closely. 'It builds jealousy and envy.'
男性与女性均从中获益匪浅，但是社会依然极度保守。咨询公司仲量联行(Jones Lang LaSalle)的高管马彦克?萨克塞纳(Mayank Saksena)说：“多少代人以来，男性从未看到过女性如此强大，这导致了他们的嫉妒与羡慕。”