Women are no Playthings

Esha Chanda,

Columnist (Our World)

 

It was 9:30 in the night when she climbed into a bus with her male friend. The place was South Delhi, India. An hour and a half later, a passer-by found the bodies of these two passengers lying on the road of the capital of the nation. In this time gap, this 23-year old medical intern was gang-raped in the moving bus after her friend was beaten unconscious. The unidentified victim succumbed to death on 29^th December 2012.

Today, the country mourns her death. Numbed with the grief and shock by an act of unimaginable cruelty, the citizens have moved from their houses to the streets in protests demanding justice from the government. As reports of the night’s horrific events unfolded in the media, the agitation intensified. But what’s sad to see is that it took the loss of a young soul for the nation to wake up and protest against the injustice that breathes and thrives in the winding lanes of the country. The paralysed government is merely observing the number of files with rape victims piling up at their desk. While women politicians and members of the parliament address the crowd with tearful eyes, they fail to understand that their tears will not soothe anyone. It’s a disgrace that the country stirs up and hears the voice of the women in pain and anguish only after a girl is tortured by 6 spiteful beasts.

A woman is no longer considered to be safe. They are groped and pushed in public; they are molested and treated as objects of male satisfaction. Chauvinism and sexism cannot be a part of the society’s thinking. The problem with a country like India is that the nation seems to be clearly divided between two mind sets; one that has travelled far away from the antediluvian thoughts of women being inferior, and the other that still walks with their head held high by referring women as dented and painted. Sadly, the latter comments seem to be echoing the thoughts of a few ruling hands of the country. If you think the way a female dresses provokes a male to attack her and rape her, think again. The gang-rape victim was a simple girl and in no way was provocatively dressed. Yet it did not stop the men from raping her. Stop questioning a female’s character by judging her from her clothes. It’s a not a battle of the sexes. It’s not men against women. It’s the fight for a woman to walk freely in her country without the fear of being traumatised. The society does not have women so that they can act as pleasure toys for men. We call ourselves us a civilization yet we have animals roaming the streets waiting to pounce on their preys.

She died not just because she was raped, she died because she was abused to such an extreme that vital organs in her body gave up. The multi organ failure is not responsible for her death; the numerous system failure of the Indian government is to be held accountable.

The more preposterous part of the recent events stirring up in India is that within 13 days of the protests that were taking place in the capital, 3 rape cases were reported. When at one side we have an entire nation responding and demanding justice, on the other side the crime is still in motion. The offenders are not deterred; they are not reluctant to carry out the same crime. What does this prove? The laws of the nation has so many loop holes that wrongdoers don’t give a damn to what the society thinks. They know they can commit the crime and escape it.

The need of the hour is to get the system in place. A women’s life cannot be under the constant threat of being raped or groped or be exposed to any kind of violence. Impart basic education in men and teach them to respect women. Make prostitution legal in the country so that men don’t vent out their frustration on women walking on the road. Make rape a non bail-able offence. Maintain a track record of these offenders to ensure that they do not go down the same road again. And for a nation that is anguished by this incident, make certain that this one, of all the protests and movements started in the country in the past, doesn’t fizzle out. The society can see men and women objecting because it’s the question of their daughter, their friend and their mother. Let this not be a demonstration that although has been ignited by an incident but then fails to bring about any change.

Victims of rape are scarred for a long time. Apart from the physical pain, they undergo psychological and emotional trauma that remains a part of them for the rest of the lives. With feeble promises by the government for severe punishments, even if the men who assaulted the girl are hanged or even if laws are amended to give way to capital punishment to such offenders, we are dealing with a mind set that needs to be severely altered. The rotten edge of the society that burns with the patriarchal system requires to be mended. Our country seems to bask in the success achieved in business and science, yet when it comes down to basic respect and treating other humans, a dark shadow looms over the nation. Specific steps have to be taken to modify the cultural outlook and the laws that govern the rights of women. The right to be born, to be educated, to be treated with respect, to work and live and dress and to walk freely in the society. Because females right now, are neither safe inside the womb nor outside.