Being a woman was never easy. The perils just get quadrupled if you are in Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai,for that matter, anywhere in India. A truth that most of us Indian's seem to have gotten used to of late.
Last few weeks have seen back to back cases of young girls being raped, mauled, shoved off a running train or left locked in a house without food or water for months together. As a nosy media brings these images to us in a 24/7 tamaasha, the news seems to have numbed us out of our ability to empathize, react or protest.
Crime against women is not a recent phenomenon. This sorry state of our female populace is an age old bane of our society. There are laws against such crimes. There also is woefully less usage of these laws. However, apart from ineffective archaic laws, there is another very appalling and sinister conspiracy that nurtures these crimes. The Conspiracy of Silence.
A female college student gets killed in broad daylight by a jilted lover. A few hundred people watch the murder. And keep quite.
A sportswomen is thrown off a jam packed general compartment of a train by a mob. She loses her leg and with it a career and a future. The people in the train keep mum and move on.
Not so many years ago, a bartender is shot in the head for refusing a drink. The hundreds partying out there at the bar refuse to speak out.
Silence, it would seem, is a an art we have perfected effortlessly.
Contrast this with a rape attempt at a Denver airport in the U.S. two days ago. The people at the airport raise an alarm, outdo the rapist, call the police and the medics and save a girl's life and dignity.
What is it that makes us Indians morph into silent spectators in the face of injustice and crime? Are we a citizenry bereft of any human emotion and conscience?
Where is the famed "melodrama" and "bhaichaara" that we as a nation pride on? Why this Silence? Why is it so difficult for us to speak out and act against crime?
It is not enough to have a police escort on all our trains. It is not enough to have a male protector with every female Indian all through the day. No stringent law will be able to stem this moral rot unless there is a shift in the mentality that fuels this behavior.
Our silence condones crime. Our apathy is their power source. Our indifference is the curtain these criminals hide behind, each time they ruin a woman's life.
Where women are worshiped, reside the gods,said our wise men. By that measure, India today is bereft of any godliness, a swamp or evil and its minions.
We Indians are terrible hypocrites. We worship so many female deities.... We celebrate grand festivals in their names... Yet, we turn a blind eye to the crimes committed against women.
ReplyDeleteOur Society as a whole needs to see things in a different perspective. Respect and value others basic Human Rights.
It is really frightening that our Nation is descending into such a state of apathy where people look on while heinous crimes are being committed.
We need to start caring. And others will care about us.
The title says it all. India was the veritable land of the gods, were women were respected and never violated.
ReplyDeleteIt is the mindset which has to change in order to bring back that Ram rajya again. Each individual must strive to look upon women with respect and as shakti, this can be ensured only by appropriate spiritual education on right and wrong.
Don't worry folks "the kingdom of heaven is at hand" and it will soon befall mankind, that is god's eternal promise to us...
Caring is the right word I guess... We need to educate our younger generation on moral values first.. coz this is the basic foundation to control any crime.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous: Spiritualism/religious tenets helps to a certain extent, agree with that. But how many will follow??
We need to, as a nation, set up an example to be followed wherein our women folk are respected. The strong influence and easy access to porn and what not has corrupted the young minds of India..
As a fellow human the least we can do is help anyone in need. If we have lost even that basic sense then humanity as whole is evolving in a wrong direction.
access to porn, in my opinion aint the problem! its more to do with the attitude we have to sex. we cant stop porn no matter how harsh the rules are. then isnt it better to stop making it such a huge over rated thing?
ReplyDeletethe entire problem here is the repressed sexuality and sexual urges that we have as a society. taboo, prohibited topic that sex is, it isnt a surprise it gets expressed in such outrageous forms, which more often than not , are just a case of curiosity killing the cat.
What we need is a more open acceptance of sex as a people, followed by the collective shunning of using sex as a tool to assert one's will over the other!
I feel its all about respecting each others differences once if we start practicing this hope we the rate of crime againstwomen will decrease
ReplyDeleteMaine Jab Se Tumko Dekha Hai Aisa Lagta Hai Bus Tu Hi Tu Hai. Thank You For Sharing.
ReplyDelete