Reactions to Rape, Part II

The unfortunate victim of this incident has been christened with such names as Amanat, Damini, Nirbhaya and so on. All over India, people are mourning the death of “India’s daughter”. People are lighting candles on the streets. Grief has spread to all corners of the country. This is what I don’t understand. Whilst I do not condone the actions of the six accused in any way whatsoever, I believe that India as a nation is blessed with a serious problem – a problem that links directly to its middle class, its spine.

Quote (section taken from Times Of India’s website)

Honour Nirbhaya by making this pledge

- We will personally treat all women at home and elsewhere with respect and demand the same from others

- We will not practice discrimination against women at home and in the workplace and will fight it wherever we see it

- We will intervene in whatever way we can when we see a woman being harassed whether verbally or by deeds. In all such cases, we will insist on FIRs being lodged and acted upon

- We will not vote for politicians who treat women with disrespect

There’s a fundamental problem with the mindset here. I do not intend to dwell on the rather optimistic pledge outlined above. Instead I would like to take this opportunity to quote a simple statistic. In Delhi this year, there were 635 rape cases. And one conviction. One. ONE. More than zero, less than two. If we didn’t waste all our damned money on buying candles for one victim and organising mass protests demanding that Manmohan Singh find a new job then maybe we’d be able to think of the other 634. I mean no disrespect to her memory but it certainly looks like India doesn’t care about the memories of all those that suffer in silence.

This brings us on to what aggravates me so much. Why does a girl have to be raped, beaten, thrown off a bus and unsuccessfully hospitalised for two weeks in order to raise awareness about an issue that has plagued India since god knows when? What can be more hypocritical than that? Do we wait until a family member suffers pancreatic cancer before demanding access to healthcare? As a cricket mad nation, do we ever pass up the most miniscule of opportunities to dig into the team and its players? No. And no. Then why we wait so long to finally react to this is beyond me.

Speaking of reacting brings me on to the next big problem. How we react. It is unfortunate that blinded by rage over recent events, the public is basically picking up every statement made by figures of authority and twisting them into anti-feminist, anti-change statements. Obviously in some cases this hasn’t actually been necessary – cue Botsa Satyanarayana’s “That particular woman (the Delhi rape victim) should have applied her mind before boarding the private bus. Anyway, it was a small incident” statement. However, twisting Manmohan Singh’s “theek hai” (it’s ok) remark to a cameraman into an anti-feminist statement is nothing short of pathetic. It just highlights the dismal urge everyone seems to have to find a scapegoat.

Like Lassie before me, I’m not trying to play down the issue. I also think that change will come eventually. All I believe is that reacting and retaliating like hooligans makes us as human as those six men.

- Chap