Exactly five years ago i was speaking to my friend who is a girl from mumbai . Casually chatting as i was new to mumbai then she remarked that after a long journey by bus she reached at 2 am at home . "What ... 2 am midnight ? " Werent you afraid ? I asked ..
"This is mumbai ... Here we girls feel safe whatever the time is . "she replied .
3 years ago : Gurgaon near Delhi .... I told my friend " Hey man ...Nice cool place ... I am going to eat out at 9 pm " . " Be careful " ....He replied ...
" What ? Its only 9 pm " I told him and i am a man ..
"Boss ... It doesnt matter ... Its not safe ..."
No i wont say point blank that Delhi and Gurgaon are bad places for safety of women and all other places in india or even the world are safe for women . But considering the statistics it remains true that certain regions of the country are relatively more unsafe for women .
But can rape be prevented by cordoning off certain regions of india or even by offering stricter punishments alone . Murder is punished (of course only if rarest ) by capital punishment but has that alone reduced the murder rates in any parts of the world . The circumstances under which and motive of murder and rape are much different of course but the point is severe punishment "alone" is not going to stop this menace .
The key thing is a change in attitude towards women in this patriarchal soceity . ( If anyone still tells me we are an equal soceity check at the boy: girl ratio of babies born in many parts of india ) . And if you tell me men alone are the perpetrators in the second class attitude towards women i wont ask you to look at the saas -bahu serials but a serious rethink on what really happens in making women gender unequal .And if you really go into rape in many cases its not only a crime of animal passion its a crime of control of one person over another .
Considering the overwhelming response in facebook as well as protests against that violent incidence of gang rape its very clear that the public overwhelmingly is very concerned about this . Of course speedy trial and speedy justice is the need of the hour in these cases . But i feel still the most important factor is a serious rethink on what status we as a soceity gives to our women .
In one of the articles in the newspaper one woman journalist was telling how she was groped during a protest . And paradoxically that protest was the very protest of recent times against the rape of that innocent girl . Though overwhelming protestors have the best of intentions and this could be a random incident by a random miscreant among the protestors .
But the skewed sex ratio , countless " innocent " remarks against women and even these gropings arent they a serious wakeup call for us overall regarding the status of women in our soceity ... ?
Hoping for peace for that innocent girl in the nether world i wish all my friends to always speak up against any form of abuse be it physical , mental or sexual by anybody so that may her soul rest in peace ...
"This is mumbai ... Here we girls feel safe whatever the time is . "she replied .
3 years ago : Gurgaon near Delhi .... I told my friend " Hey man ...Nice cool place ... I am going to eat out at 9 pm " . " Be careful " ....He replied ...
" What ? Its only 9 pm " I told him and i am a man ..
"Boss ... It doesnt matter ... Its not safe ..."
No i wont say point blank that Delhi and Gurgaon are bad places for safety of women and all other places in india or even the world are safe for women . But considering the statistics it remains true that certain regions of the country are relatively more unsafe for women .
But can rape be prevented by cordoning off certain regions of india or even by offering stricter punishments alone . Murder is punished (of course only if rarest ) by capital punishment but has that alone reduced the murder rates in any parts of the world . The circumstances under which and motive of murder and rape are much different of course but the point is severe punishment "alone" is not going to stop this menace .
The key thing is a change in attitude towards women in this patriarchal soceity . ( If anyone still tells me we are an equal soceity check at the boy: girl ratio of babies born in many parts of india ) . And if you tell me men alone are the perpetrators in the second class attitude towards women i wont ask you to look at the saas -bahu serials but a serious rethink on what really happens in making women gender unequal .And if you really go into rape in many cases its not only a crime of animal passion its a crime of control of one person over another .
Considering the overwhelming response in facebook as well as protests against that violent incidence of gang rape its very clear that the public overwhelmingly is very concerned about this . Of course speedy trial and speedy justice is the need of the hour in these cases . But i feel still the most important factor is a serious rethink on what status we as a soceity gives to our women .
In one of the articles in the newspaper one woman journalist was telling how she was groped during a protest . And paradoxically that protest was the very protest of recent times against the rape of that innocent girl . Though overwhelming protestors have the best of intentions and this could be a random incident by a random miscreant among the protestors .
But the skewed sex ratio , countless " innocent " remarks against women and even these gropings arent they a serious wakeup call for us overall regarding the status of women in our soceity ... ?
Hoping for peace for that innocent girl in the nether world i wish all my friends to always speak up against any form of abuse be it physical , mental or sexual by anybody so that may her soul rest in peace ...
Well-said. Unless things change at the ground level, the end-results cannot change. As protest messages went around FB, I couldn't help thinking how many of us would reach out to a woman if we witnessed some form of abuse to her.
ReplyDeleteAn incident in my initial days in Kerala comes to mind. I remember this autorickshaw driver who wouldn't let me pass; he blocked my way in a deliberate attempt. Eventually when I managed to overtake him, he chased me and stopped me. As people gathered, he completely twisted the story around to say that I had blocked him all along. My relatives who were in yet another car, had joined us. I was confident that they would support me, but they not only shut up (3 men in the group), but also gave me a sermon later on how it was important for me to realize that I was a woman and had to therefore learn to give in. Had my father been around (and in sound health), he would have reacted to the situation. Over time, I learnt that society here is not conducive to women. There are people who probably understand, but most do not wish to stand up for a cause. This came as a shock to me because in Karnataka (where I grew up), the attitude is different.
I feel a lot of change has to come in the way we treat women. Society needs to be protective of them, and not suppressive.
Vidya