It was just a normal evening talk in
the hostel on night of 17th January, 2013 when I was just cynical
about India’s condition in cricket as India lost the Test series from England.
Again a down slide, which has pushed India’s cricket to a dark corner in 2012.
But soon one of my friends questioned me about the occurrence of a barbaric
rape in Delhi, which I was quite unaware. I was quite indifferent even after I
heard about the incident as it has been an incident, which everyone finds as a
small column or a headline topic. We, as a country, has done also very little
to stop all these. But the moment I heard about the seventh rapist, which
happened to be the rod, my blood started really simmering. Even the stereotype
‘Yaamraj’ also does not give such a harsh punishment for the sinners.
Nicely observed by Justice Arjit Pasayat,
retired judge of the Supreme Court of India:
“While
a murderer destroys the physical frame of the victim, a rapist degrades and
defiles the soul of a helpless female.”
Justice Krishna Iyer has observed in
a very famous case of Rafiq v. State :
“A
murderer kills the body but a rapist kills the soul.”
Think about the young girl of 23.
What had she done? Why was she punished? Why was she forced to be played by
those six idiots? All the questions have one answer, i.e., because our system
has done very little to keep up the security and safety of “ghar kii bahu aur betii”.
The obvious reaction among all of us
now is what can be done to prevent it. We have thought it numerous times and we
have reached at the same conclusion every time. Yes, there is an urgent need to
change the psychic condition of the society. Nothing else will help. Some
people are of the opinion that the capital punishment inflicted on the culprit
will deter others from committing such a heinous crime. Till now the maximum
punishment, which could be given to a sexual offender is life term jail
imprisonment. The capital punishment is that worst punishment only for a
murderer. So, if the capital punishment is passed as a punishment for the
rapist, the sexual offender will try to kill the victim as not to leave any
trace for his crime. It will make the situation worse.
The one and only thing, which will
help the situation improve is the change in the psychology of the general mass.
Everyone needs to be aware of the equality of men and women. There is a need to
change the attitude of the patriarch society. Mrs Prabha Sridevan, former judge
of Madras High Court showed this patriarchal behavior prevalent in the world
through nice examples in a public forum of The Hindu. She explained how a male
judge from a court of California said that rape never happens without the
consent of the women. It really proves that what we say as the western
countries are way behind the civilization. If there is the consent of woman,
then why it will be called a rape! There is another judge from some court in US
who really made mockery of him when he said that it is quite legal to fire a
lady employee who is irresitively attractive. These examples are a few, which
elucidates the sick mentality that is prevalent in the society. What a girl
wears, where she goes, what she does should be completely her own private
affair. Otherwise we are taking away the fundamental right to express out of
her, which is quite unconstitutional. In India, we are always a step ahead. First
of all, we don’t want female kid, so we carry out female feticides. Then when
the left out female kid grows up, the amoral people go out and sexually offend
the opposite sex. I was really not able find the catch in it. Really we are
showing to the world that we are amoral as well as illogical. Our patriarch
India is considered to be in the 5 worst places considered for women in the
world. We share these last 5 positions with Sudan, Saudia Arabia, Pakistan,
Afghanistan. Are we happy with such neighborhood in the list? Should not we
change ourselves?
There is a need to change the
attitude and the behavior what we show to a victim after she is gone through
this physical trauma. She is well as a dead body as we deem her to be after she
becomes a victim of this heinous brutality. The accused does not feel shame.
But then a cloth is wrapped around the face of the victim because our hungry
media makes the life the victim miserable. The victim is stigmatized. No one
bothers about how soon the judgment should come or what is the deserving
punishment. No media questions the law makers sitting in the dome-shaped
building in the capital. It is really the parody of the ordered society, which
we are given by our fore fathers. We should run campaigns to make people aware
of it and make the victim feel being a part of society. This victim can be any
of us. Don’t wait till the water runs into your house.
The investigating police officer, the
medical officer, the litigation officer all need to be more patient and caring taking
into consideration the mental and physical condition of the victim. New Delhi
has the highest number of sex crimes among India’s major cities, with a rape
reported on average every 18 hours. Seeing the mammoth-ness of this crime, more
number of fast-track courts shall come up. We can’t show step motherly
attitudes to the victims just because she was unable to resist the physical
power of an animal. She should not pay for the carnal desire of a unleashed
unsocial animal. The police officer and the doctors should try to restore the
psychological and physical power of the victim.
Really the time has come. The volcano
has come out. Let this magma of activity and awareness flow through the each
human chain. If the lawmakers can make some appropriate and prudent law, the
law-abiders will stand by it certainly. Let us stop treating the women as sex
objects, be it in raunchy item numbers in bollywood or for any commercial
products. If we can certainly follow these certain rules to lead an ordered
life, our future generations will have a peaceful earth to co-habitate with each
other.
