Recently the country was begrimed with a documentary ‘India’s daughter’ with regard to the nightmarish incident that occurred in December 2012. A girl in her early twenties was gang-raped in a moving bus in Delhi - this is what I knew. Rape cases - I get to hear or read about it often. I do not know to what extent the documentary was polished, but one thing was sure - I was outrageous to listen to what the driver, Mukesh, and the defense attorney had to say. I was immensely disturbed mentally, so much that I was in depression for the entire day till I had to force myself to cheer up as I was going on a vacation. Even there, those baseless and harsh words said in the short film were haunting me like an evil devil. I wanted to write about it and vent out my anger on the whole issue but could not bring myself to do it then.
To think of it now, what the defense attorney (I have no clue why you even need a defense for this crime) said spoke the minds of most of the men in this country. Not only men, but even most women also lead their lives within the walls of inequality created for them and never dare to go past it. It may have never occurred to them even. Just like how women worship Shiva and Vishnu as supreme and worship them, they take whatever they get from their men - shelter, respect or disrespect, love or no love, physical or verbal abuse. It is just the only way of life they know of.
Rape is a crime that is prominent in India from ages akin to crimes like murder and theft. It is prominent in many other parts of the world. What was new but old was the two dimensions that have emerged around it since the documentary was shown. One, the rapists thought that the victim would never tell about it to anyone, shaming her family and her self- dignity. Two, Indian culture is largely to be blamed as it promotes gender inequality. I refer to them as “old but new” because both these facts were not out of the blue revelations. It is just that we - the educated, urban and youth-of-this-generation-with-more-liberty were not paying heed to any of this. Thousands of rape incidents have gone unnoticed for hundreds of decades. The rapists could be rich or poor, educated or not, religious or not, married or not, adults or juvenile. The reason for the act could be anything ranging from desperation to getting provoked by woman’s attire ( I do not personally believe in this).
Just like how even till date, the parents give a huge dowry (like giving away their daughter to another family to nurture and flourish that family was not enough), just like how poverty still exists in spite of exponential development the nation has seen economically, just like how the sanitation and hygiene knowledge and practice are lacking in many parts of the country, just like how even today child labor exists, rape is also a problem. It is a problem because, in other countries, rape might have been occurring due to desperation. But in this nation, this crime occurs less because of desperation and more because of ‘male domination’. As I saw in this video, they wanted to “teach” a lesson to the lady, to have committed the sin of being out of her house post evening. We can see how male dominance was prominent back then too if you look closely at Mahabharat and Ramayan. For instance, the Draupadi episode. Men with such mentality want to show and prove again and again that they are superior and they have the right to do anything to a woman’s body and soul.
I honestly hope the change has begun and in the right way. I can think of only three ways this act of crime can be reduced over the years and remold the basic thinking that most people have in this nation. One, make the punishment for the crime quick. And it should not be death. Although it is the ultimate punishment, it does not prove anything. Do something that is horrifying. Two, make sex education an ideal part of the course of a child’s education whether the child is studying in a government school or an international school. Educate them with all dimensions of it to girls and boys - when is it good, when is it bad, and how to fight when forced upon. Just like how Dr. Ambedkar was part of our syllabus throughout our schooling in different chapters of different languages, instilling into our minds, again and again, the values he believed in and his fight against untouchability, why can’t we include educating the young minds about sex and the untold rules governing it? Why can’t we teach young boys to unlearn how their sisters are treated unequally in their homes by their parents? I don’t even know if this is possible, in a country where a female child is a disgrace and unwanted in the fetus stage. This idea seems way too far fetched when I see cases of teachers raping young girls in schools. Ugh. Disgusted. The last thing I can think of is to empower women - if empower means to educate them, it sounds cliche to me because if you look at the lady in the video, she was quite a star, determined to finish studying medicine against all odds and trying to make ends meet by working part-time, so how can we say education helps? Has it helped her? We should give a thought to our education system.
What else can we do to stop this heartless crime in India? Let’s begin a crusade against this shameful act happening in this country, let’s not allow the storm to just raise the dust and settle down for nothing. Let us join hands and do something, at the grass-root level - to make the men of old generation know that the men of this generation will not carry forward the same loathsome mentality that they have had from centuries, and to let the young girls know that they are going to be safe in this country and will not live life by taking the legacy forward - a legacy of hypocrisy, brutality, and dominance. We are going to treat the wives, mothers, sisters, girlfriends, grandmothers, and strangers better.
India IS a daughter - we refer to this country as our mother, Bharath Matha. India needs it’s daughters.
India IS a daughter - we refer to this country as our mother, Bharath Matha. India needs it’s daughters.
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