Following the sexual harassment of actress Niveditha on the north Goa beach, she had narrated the shocking ordeal of an unpleasant experience that she had to face while on her vacation in Goa. According to Niveditha, she has been brought up in a liberal environment where there is no belief in gender bias. But her experience with Goa shook her confidence level completely.
It may be recalled that an upcoming actress from south film industry was harassed by the group of hooligans on the north Goa beach while she was on her short vacation in Goa. When the incident took place, the actress was taking a stroll on the beach. The situation could have gone out of the hands but the timely intervention of one of the hotel supplier who rescued the actress and escorted her back to the hotel. According to the sources, an actress has a plan of staying in Goa alone for two days followed by which her boyfriend was supposed to join her in Goa.
According to Niveditha, she belongs to a very liberal family environment and she never felt different because of her gender. “My parents raised me to be an independent woman and that is why I decided to spend two days alone in Goa before joining by boyfriend. But unfortunately, I had to ask him to drive down from Bangalore on the first night of the trip itself, since the walk on the beach turned into the nightmare,” said Niveditha.
According to Niveditha, the lewd comments passed on her by the group of rowdy people changed her entire perspective about the existing mentality of men in this civilized society. She narrated the entire incident saying, “After I wrapped up the shoot of my latest film, I set out to Goa. My boyfriend was to meet me there, but I asked him to come after two days since I wanted to be by myself. On the night that I reached Goa, I went for a walk on the beach around 9 pm, and throughout the 15-minute-long walk, many men passed lewd remarks, followed me and came a little too close for comfort. To avoid them, I walked into a shack, but there were a group of men at the next table, who were laughing and asking me to join them. I dreaded walking back to my hotel alone again, so I asked the server at the shack to accompany me. On the way back, no one troubled me, just because there was a man by my side. I felt very cheap. The general perception is that if a woman is with a man, she automatically belongs to him; if a woman is by herself, then anyone can have a go at her. That struck me hard. I called up my boyfriend after I went back to my room and asked him to come to Goa right away,” said Niveditha.
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It is not alone the misbehavior of the men that disturbed her but the objectification made her sadder. According to Niveditha, she does not want to blame the men alone for what they did to her but she feels bad about the fundamentals existing in the society which is the reason behind the gender bias, where the women are considered to be a weak sex and her independence is not respected. “It is an outcome of something being fundamentally wrong in the way our society is constructed,” said Neveditha.
According to Niveditha, The situation in Bengaluru is no different and women face this everywhere. She explains what happens when she heads to a party alone. “Rather than trying to get to know me as a human being, as a person, all they want to know is if I am available,” she adds. “I do not blame the men but the fundamentals in the society. What I saw was just the rotten fruit and you need to deal with that, but the main issue is the root that needs to be looked into”‘ she concluded.
