The News Minute | August 31, 2014 | 06:00 pm ISTEvery other day, a politician trivializes rape. Every other day, a rape occurs in some corner of the country. The ladies are asked to be wary of men, are asked not to wear revealing clothes, the list is endless.After all the pepper sprays and mobile phone apps towards anti-sexual abuse prevention, a group of four University students from California have invented a new nail polish that changes color on contact with a date-rape drug. Now every girl can twirl her drink to see if her nail color changes to enjoy a drink without any misgivings. Sounds good idealistically, but this has generated a lot of controversy from anti-rape advocates surprisingly. Many felt that the idea of the nail polish missed the whole point of educating people against rape and sexual assault; instead it again puts the onus of avoiding rape on the woman. The Internet is filled with tips to help a woman protect herself from rape. Films For Action came out with a handy set of tips for men that could be more useful, they say.Surely, this can’t fail.1. Don’t go out after darkYes stay inside and all women problems are solved, in one shot. The ladies are too scared to walk home after work. This may work, if all the men just stayed at home. 2. Too tempting? If you must go out, ‘shield your eyes’This July Goa’s public works minister said that women should not wear bikinis. He actually said “'Wearing bikinis can attract problems like molestationsâ€. Films For Action tells the men to wear glasses with the wrong prescription. Men are good at avoiding women when they don’t want them around. They should just try this evasion-technique every time they see some woman, or they could just wear horse blinders, says the report. 3. Don’t be in the proximity of a single womanIf you see a woman who is alone, walking down a dark road or travelling in a bus, go in the other direction. Leave her alone and go as far away as possible. Films For Action says this will help. 4. Don’t drinkSo Kerala has just paid heed to this advice and put a clampdown on alcohol in the state. It’s probably because Kerala is the smartest (highest literacy). According to Films For Action, 62 % date rapists felt that they committed rape because they were intoxicated.For all those who cannot live without their occasional booze party, they could follow Advice number 1 and just stay at home. 5. Stop eating chowmeinA khap panchayat in Haryana blamed chowmein for causing hormonal imbalance that lead to an increase of rapes occurring in India. Assuming he’s right, not eating chowmein can also help. 6. Equality for men and women? Use chastity beltsSo, all anti-rape devices are coming out only for the women. After recent crowd-funded anti-rape undergarment project for women, the men have been demanding equality for both sexes. To ensure that the men don’t feel left out amidst all this, Films For Action advises men to buckle up with their own version of chastity underwear. 7. Be open with your dateNow, if you are going out with someone, be open about your intentions. Films For Action tells the men to be upfront with their ideas of assaulting the woman they are out on a date with. Surely, that will work enough to get the woman up and running in no time, away from the men that is.Ridiculous as all the above sounds, so is coming up with more and more anti-rape devices, say anti-rape advocates. There is only so much a pepper spray or a date-rape detecting nail polish can do. It could help that one girl protect herself from assault, but the root problem of addressing the men is not dealt with. An Internet backlash after news of the nail polish came out abhorred the idea of continuously putting the onus of protecting oneself on the women instead of educating men.Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought up the bigger question in his Independence Day speech on August 15. He said that while parents questioned their daughters when they left home late at night, no one dared asked their sons. “Do the parents dare to ask their sons, 'Where are you going? Why are you going? Who are your friends?' After all, the rapist is also someone's son," he pointed out