Dec. 2012: A 23-year-old student is
beaten and gang-raped on a moving bus in the capital New Delhi and later dies
of her injuries. Five men and a juvenile are arrested - four of the men have
been sentenced to death and one hanged himself during the trial. The juvenile
was freed after completing three years in a reform home.
Jan. 2018: An 8-year-old Muslim girl is drugged, held captive
in a temple and sexually assaulted for a week before being strangled and
battered to death with a stone in Kathua town in northern India. Six men,
including a Hindu priest and three police officers, were convicted of the
crime. Three were given life sentences.
 |
| Representation image, Google |
Nov. 28, 2019: The charred remains of the veterinarian
are found under a flyover near Hyderabad. Four men are arrested on suspicion of
gang-rape and murder. All 4 of them were killed by Police in encounter
Dec 5, 2019: A 23-year-old rape victim is set
ablaze by a gang of men, including the alleged rapist, as she made her way to
court to attend a hearing in the case, in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh,
police said.
Dec 6, 2019: Dead body of an 8 year old is found in a
park in Barola village, Noida. After 2 days of discovery of body, police came
to the park to do their preliminary process.
Most of the people who watch television, scroll through
different social media handle or still read newspaper would be well aware of
the rape cases mentioned above except for the last one! Why? Good question with
a very easy answer because that was not covered by media houses even though
most of the popular media houses reside in Noida. Does that make this incident
less cruel than others – No it doesn’t but it brings out the reality of current
scenario in our country that it is indeed becoming a RAPE REPUBLIC.
Today is 16 December, a day when a girl like me went for
a movie with her friend but didn’t return back to her home. She was raped,
brutally assaulted and thrown at some sideways after 5 monsters thought she is
as good as dead. She was lying there for many hours, so many vehicles ran past
her no one stopped for even a second to see or help! It’s been 7 years to that
incident, her parents still are waiting for justice and closure while the
criminals are staying in Tihar jail filing taking turns in filing mercy pleas
in court; not to forget one of them got away because wow he wasn’t an adult!
I remember standing in the newsroom when this news broke;
my first instinct was that this is worst form of violence against women – it is
the first thing that should go on air! But I was stopped – why because we were
a regional news channel and this is something that happened in New Delhi so why
bother? The second time I heard my senior say that the girl shouldn’t be out at
night along with her boyfriend and god knows what she was wearing to attract strange
group of men. I couldn’t help but broke down at the indifferent and casual take
on brutality against a girl who stepped out of her home!
Why am I talking about what happened 7 years back?
Because as much as anyone in this world wish to believe that we are
progressing, the girls are standing along with boys, the girls are doing what
boys could do or throw this development tantrums – I don’t see any change.
There is no denying fact that the outrage over the Nirbhaya rape case prompted legal and administrative policy
changes, this had little-to-no impact on arrests and convictions for rape,
molestation and sexual harassment in Delhi. According
to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data available for 2017, more than 32,500 cases of rape were registered with the
police in 2017, about 90 a day. The total
number of rape cases that went to trial in that year was 1, 46,201 but only
5,822 of them resulted in conviction – 32.2 % despite the stringent laws in the
aftermath of the incident. This excludes all those cases that goes unreported
and undetected.
I feel helpless, angry and agitated. It
pains me to see same circle of events happening after Hyderabad case as
Nirbhaya – public outrage and demand for hanging rapists, politicians taking
advantage, Facebook activism, media debating and re-debating on how safe women
are? And toxic masculine mob culture of killing the rapists as the instant
punishment and oh yes film industry cashing in by making films like Mardaani 2
or actors like Akshay Kumar voicing their opinion on twitter demanding strict
laws while using sexist and rape jokes in their movies!
I feel outraged because dear fellow
country people who proudly calls Nation as Bharat Mata why do you need to make
your presence visible only when a rape case becomes viral; do you engage in
pseudo activism so that you can let go off your guilt of being a bystander when
a girl was being harassed or because you are the part of toxic patriarchal
system; why don’t you raise your voice when you see gender stereotypes being
forced in families, workspace or in public domain! Isn’t it you who commented
on what dress that girl was wearing, weren’t you the one who said that why she is going late in evening, or what is doing
with that boy in the college or in work? It’s so easy to put blame on society,
law or police that we forget to look inside us! Rape culture is not something
that has come out of blue, it has its root inside us; we are the society!
Interestingly while our leaders are busy burning down our
country in the name of citizenship bill – No comment or statement has come out
of their mouth on violence against women. Probably this doesn’t help their vote
bank; one of the women leaders have been listed in the Forbes list of most
powerful women in the world but we have girls and women being subjected to
molestation, harassment and rape like it is part of our goddamn life.
I constantly
wonder what has changed post Nirbhaya case! India was named as the most dangerous country
for women in terms of sexual violence last year and each day brutality is
reaching another level despite so called laws – why are we as people, society
and Nation becoming regressive with each passing moment. When are we going to
open our eyes and understand that Rape is epidemic with roots lying into
patriarchal system that we are happily part of.
The hue and cry
at the time when a rape case becomes viral won’t eradicate gender based
violence; we need measures at all level: as people, as lawmakers, as
politicians, as media person and as society! Stop being a bystander, raise your
voice right at the beginning because if anyone can stop this circle of violence
it is us.
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