The title of the article totally contradicts the recent News and surveys about the safety of women in our country and I believe many of you are here in search of sarcasm. Truth is, there is no sarcasm intended. I seriously believe that things have gotten better for women and I have strong reasons to believe that.
Every day, we wake up to multiple News reports of rape and harassment. Minors, women of all ages, men (it happens, is equally evil, mostly unreported) gets sexually harassed or abused. This obviously makes us think that the safety of women is getting worse in the country. But why, what happened in the last few years which increased such events? Rape or sexual harassment in today’s time can result in:
- In today’s social media scenario, you can easily end up on the internet as the fresh new villain.
- You will be soon on the mainline media for all the wrong reasons and your social image will be gone forever.
- Media will make sure that you get arrested even if you have a strong political background.
- Jail will mean a huge chunk of your life behind bars or even death penalty.
- Even if you come out of the jail, people will recognise you and will be even ready to kill you.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that this is not the case with majority of the incidents and India is still very-very unsafe. My point is, if we compare the pre and post times of Nirbhaya case, it’s hard to find a single good-enough reason which is more helpful to the rapist nowadays as compared to the earlier times. Because the truth is:
The number of rapes reported each year in Delhi has more than tripled over the last five years and the number of harassment cases reported has grown more than five folds. This is an official report by Delhi police which is a very welcome move from the society as the mentality regarding rape and rape victims in India is very regressive.
In my childhood and teen years, I have seen uncountable daily soaps and movies where rape was more or less equivalent to permanent loss of respect for the victim. The only viable solution for it? Suicide! “Who is going to marry her now?”, “Izzat chali gayi (Her respect is lost)”, “Isse acha to mar jati (It was better for her to die)”. This is not just the entertainment media, this is how our society thinks.
Even after being a very modern, independent and strong woman, I have believed this crippled concept for a big period of my life. That’s how badly conditioned we are. This results in non-reporting of rape incidents to police (forget about the harassment cases), which gives a hell lot of power to the accused.
But things are changing, we are more vocal and supportive which is helping the victims to come out. If the News gets viral, it gets more and more difficult for the accused to use any type of power to save himself, thanks to the pressure from the social media and press. This is one of the reasons which is causing all this (very much required) hype around the topic.
One more aspect which is in our favour is technology, especially the evolution of mobile phones and cameras. Doesn’t matter where you are, there is a good chance that you are being watched by someone’s mobile camera or a CCTV. Such proofs play a very important part in the court proceedings.
We might be on the right track, but this is just the start of a difficult journey. Rape, harassment and catcalling is not new, it was there in the past and unfortunately, it will certainly happen in the future too. Calling India unsafe and blaming the government and its police only is not going to help.
Police and government can’t be everywhere all the time. I am not denying that there are many dark spots in these professions but how can we forget that these people and we belong to the very same society. The problem lies in the mindset. Whenever a politician gives some bizarre reasoning to support rape or rapists, these thoughts are not entirely his own, a big bunch of people around him shares the same mindset who are the support system. We have to fight this support system to make it safer for women. We have to confront everyone who has a regressive mindset towards women.
“Ladke hai, galti ho jati hai (They are boys, mistakes do happen)”, “Ladkia apni seema mei nahi rehti tabhi hota hai ye sab (Things happen because women doesn’t stay in their limits)”, “Kapde chote pehnegi to yahi hoga na (If they will short clothes, then this will only happen)”, “Jail bhej ke kya milega, ladka shadi ko taiyar hai (What’s the benefit of sending him to jail, he is ready to marry)”, “Ladkia jeans pehnti hai aur mobile rkhti hai, tbhi rape hote hai (women wear jeans and use mobile, this is the reason behind rapes)”, “Itni rat ko bahar niklegi akeli to yhi sab hoga na (If they will go out alone during late hours, only this will happen)”, I can give a thousand such ignorant comments that we hear from people of all levels of society, on a regular basis. Unless we make them regret and apologize for such comments, things will stay bad.
The war against such evil atrocities has just started. Some blaming, and criticizing is required but we have to stay together and positive to make sure that this fire stays lit, and it is going to take each and every helping hand.
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