"Women get raped at 'unwanted' parties," says Karnataka Congress leader

India

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"Do women get raped when they go to fairs (jatres)? No, they get raped at unwanted parties," these were the words of a Karnataka Congress leader. Bharathi Shankar, the chairperson of Karnataka State Women's Development Corporation did not stop at that and went on to draw parallels between women safety and garbage disposal.

Bharati, a political appointee to the board and prominent Bengaluru Congress women's wing leader had a 'foot-in-the-mouth' moment on Friday. Bharati was invited to be part of a panel discussion on women's safety for 'A Billion Eyes' - a joint initiative of the Bengaluru police and BPAC- a citizens' group that works for better politics.

The Congress leader, when asked about whether she thought of women empowerment as being equal to women safety, said that women were subjected to sexual harassment including rape only in parties. in a bid to push for 'individual responsibility', Bharati gave garbage segregation analogy for women safety. "As a citizen, I should segregate waste first to address garbage issues. If I don't do it and keep blaming the department or corporator, what is the use?" she asked.

OneIndia News