This article posted below was published in the Oct-Dec 2012 edition of the Family Mantra Magazine published from Bangalore by Kutumb Communications. It was written in September 2012 much before the 23 year old woman was gang-raped in Delhi. Needless to say there are no words to express my grief, sorrow and anger at what happened to her. It is time India brought about a change so that her daughters can live safely.
She remains unforgettable, etched in my memories. She was a
girl of twelve living in a Remand Home in Delhi. I was a student of Standard IX
visiting the Home as part of our SUPW – Social Work Classes. We were given case
studies of girls who were lost, kidnapped or caught for petty offenses. She was
not one of them.
When I sat to interview the girl assigned to me, she came
and sat beside me. During the next couple of visits I found her near me. She
made me curious. I was shocked to learn about why she was there.
Laila was gang raped by four men from her village. She was
on her way to deliver food for her father and brothers. The four men gang raped
her inside a truck and threw her away.
They stole everything from her in that one dastardly act
they committed against her. She lost her childhood, her family, her future...
and everything she knew about herself and her life. She never had a normal life
after that incident. The perpetrators of the crime were not convicted as she could
not tell them anything about them.
When I met Laila, her limbs were distorted and curved, she
could not walk upright. The trauma had taken its toll on her body and mind. She
was an isolated girl who feared even the shadow of a man. She was raped even by
the policemen. She was afraid to cross the verandah at the entrance if any
policeman was sitting there.
She was treated by others as nothing. They mocked and
ridiculed her as she walked with her bent legs. Her daily activity was cleaning
and washing the compound, after which she would go and sit in a corner. I asked
her about her family. She said it was more than a year since anyone came to see
her. They too had rejected her. Who wants a gang-raped girl who tainted their
family’s name?
My encounter with Laila made me wonder what happens to girls
like her. Is there hope for them? My mind was deeply disturbed by her
predicament because girls like her cannot help themselves. I wonder if justice
will ever be done to Laila who spends her life in a Remand Home while those who
did this to her are roaming around scot free. Who knows how many girls they
could have raped since then?
A Shame for India
The National Crime Records Bureau reports that there has
been a shocking 873% rise in rape cases between 1953 and 2011. 42,968 cases of
molestation of women were reported last year. 2,61,000 cases of crimes against
women, including sexual harassment, cruelty by husband/his relatives,
kidnapping, human trafficking were recorded. India’s report card for women’s
safety states that one woman is raped every 22 minutes! [1]
Among the 53 cities of India, Delhi accounted for the
highest number of such crimes at 13.3 per cent (4,489), followed by Bangalore
at 5.6 per cent (1,890) and Hyderabad at 5.5 per cent (1,860). [2]
On 9th July the whole country was aghast to see
the video of a 17-year-old girl being dragged, beaten, stripped and molested on
a busy street in Guwahati by a mob of about 50 men. Though the Police station
was just 1 km away, they arrived at the scene after 45 minutes. No action was
taken by the police until the video of the assault went viral on YouTube and caused
national outrage.
To add insult to injury Karnataka's Women & Child
Welfare minister C. C. Patil was quoted saying that women should
“know how much skin they should cover.” He stated that incidents like rape
and sexual harassment can be attributed to the decline in moral
values in men, indirectly caused by women dressing “provocatively.” [3]
Top cop Kiran Bedi wasn’t left far behind in belittling the
trauma of women who are raped when she lashed out at the media for what she
called inadequate reportage of Team Anna's alleged exposes on corruption. She
said, “Ask yourself. On a small rape case or assault which a low ranking
police official commits, how you would discuss it?” [4]
A Tehelka investigation reported, “According to the National
Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the conviction rate in rape cases in the capital
was a dismal 34.6 percent. In case after case, courts have been acquitting the
accused because of flawed first information reports (FIRs), erroneous
procedures in collating medical evidence and shoddy investigation. Lawyers and
women rights activists have continually been flagging the deep prejudice
prevalent in the police against women in general and rape victims in
particular, as the single biggest reason for the repeated failure of justice.[5]”
In the same report, Satbir Singh additional SHO of Sector 31
Police Station, Faridabad who completed 27 years in service and investigated
around 20 rape cases said that he believes half of all rape charges were false.
He was unapologetic about questioning the intent of rape victims when they came
to file complaints: "One lakh. Two lakh. Fifty lakh. People have
understood this is a lucrative trade for women; it's business. They've found an
income source. It's common; you're short of money, your parents don't give you
money to spend. You make compromises." [5]
One wonders that if this is the attitude of our ministers
and top police officers of our country, what is the future of women in India?
How safe are our daughters in a nation that brands and punishes the victim for
being raped rather than the criminal who destroyed her life and robbed her of her
dignity?
What can we do?
It is our primary responsibility as parents and teachers to
teach our daughters to be safe. We can protect them by teaching them precautions
they should take to avoid suspicious strangers. We need to teach them to guard
themselves at all times, especially in moments when they are most vulnerable.
They have to learn to trust their instincts about people and situations. They
need to be alert to their surroundings and be aware of the first signs of
danger.
Teaching our daughters to be safe doesn’t mean that we are
inducing fear into her. It means that she will know how to act if ever she is
attacked. It is our responsibility to teach her about keeping away from danger
just as we would tell her to keep away from fire.
At home and in schools too we have to teach our sons to
respect girls and treat them with respect. Any untoward behaviour should be
handled very carefully.
Our Duty as Citizens:
It is useless to have laws that are supposed to defend women
if citizens don’t act against lawlessness in society. Each citizen has a voice
and we can use this voice to speak out against the ills of our society. We can
demand for the police force to be made more sensitive to gender related crime.
We can take action against legislators who dishonour women through their words
and action by not letting them continue in office. We can send across a message
loud and clear that crime against women will not be tolerated by us anymore.
It is time to wake up India. If every parent does his or her
part as a citizen we can initiate action that will change things for the better.
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