India is grappling with an epidemic of rapes; not just rapes but gang rapes; not just gang rapes but gang rapes of minors as well; not just gang rapes of minors but their brutalization and murders. What kind of a country have we become? Where such news is our daily diet. Even outrage and disbelief is exhausted. Us common citizens, no, us women, don't know what to do anymore. Who and where to appeal to for the protection of the female citizens. Are these really men who do these things. Yesterday a woman was burnt alive in a TEMPLE for resisting rape. In Kathua a minor was raped in the precincts of a TEMPLE. No place awakens the conscience of these animals.Today, the news comes of an 11 year old being raped by 17 security guards over a period of 7 months in Tamilnadu. Security guards? Really? Who do you trust.
Over 34,600 cases of rape have been reported across the country last year with Madhya Pradesh and Delhi topping the list of states and union territories respectively. Among these, in 33,098 cases the offenders were known to the victims, as per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The rape victims were among the age group of below six years to over 60 years. Madhya Pradesh has reported 4,391 rape cases, a highest among the states. Whereas, the national capital has reported 2,199 such cases–highest among the union territories.
Rape in the capital city and adjoining NCR region went up by 277% in last 5 years between 2011-2015, inspite of the huge hue and cry and protests of ordinary citizens after the Nirbhaya case. Stricter laws have not deterred men from indulging in this national sport. They cock a snook everyday at the law makers, with complete fearlessness. In any case, the rapists of Nirbhaya have still not been hung. So, that is the speed at which, even a case which evoked national outrage has been dealt with.
The reason is obvious: the complete decay of values and social fabric in India, knowledge of the fact there is poor policing and investigation, tardy and long judicial system, and powerful perpetrators who threaten victims and witnesses often leading to their suicide or murder. Also, victims mostly belong to very poor families and no one really cares for them. Their parents are daily wage earners forced to go for work, while, their children play by the roadside. Easy targets of rapists.
We are a country of people who don't have food to eat but have technology to watch porn and grab the first vulnerable victim that comes our way. No role models, except their fathers and politicians who they see treating women like dirt. Objects of their lust, victims of their power. Fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins are raping their daughters, sisters, nieces and even elderly female relatives. What can you expect from such men on the streets. And then you have our politicians making misogynistic statements on serious crimes. Parading with rapists, draping them with the national flag. You have a minister who garlands murderers.
No amount of candle light vigils and protests has awakened those who need to be awakened. It is the women in power who have to come to the rescue by speaking up in their own political parties, communities, villages. A single woman standing up often gets pulverized by the all powerful patriarchal system. They have to combine, come together and speak up up, even if the culprit is their family member. Like the girl in Gurugram who reported her own father for raping her friend in a sleep over at her place; and the woman who reported her husband trying to rape his own 10 month old baby. Sick. Nauseating. Don't defend your men when they do a single act of ill treatment of a girl/woman. Only you alone are the custodians of your female specie. The machos are only trying to prove their virility.
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