Today I woke up with news that the rape victim girl died in
peace. I was in loss of words about what to say for quite some time. I feel
pain and anguish for the girl who just wanted to live but was denied even that
much. I don’t know perhaps she asked for too much from a cruel world in which we
live in. I pray for the brave girl and may she rest in peace.
I asked myself many
times in the past few days why are we so helpless every time such incident
occurs. The government and police are to be blamed for being negligent and insensitive
to basic issue of security of women. There are never enough cops at night and
those who are present are more focused on harassing commuters. Getting a FIR
registered at police station is a nightmare but even more so for women reporting
eve teasing or rape incident. The whole system is powerless in providing
justice. The quote that is ingrained in Indian Judiciary that ‘Justice Delayed
is Justice Denied’ is the greatest lie in Indian democracy.
The government and the police are only representatives of
the people. They reflect the society in which we live in. Even the rapist and
criminals are part of the society. The root of all heinous crimes and inhuman
acts are the result of mindset of patriarchal society where women have always
been deprived of their rights and liberty. The respect for women that should be
ingrained in everyone from childhood is missing even in well educated and
civilised people, let alone the poor and uneducated.
The main issue as believed by some is not single isolated
case in the capital of India even though it is the most dreadful example of
cruelty faced by women. It is the crime against women in every corner of world
that we must fight against. It is not about single highlighted case, it is
about every single harassment and humiliation faced by women. The discrimination
against women must stop otherwise our society would be maimed forever. The country
where half the population is discredited and suppressed at every level could
never progress. Humanity is in its true sense is shamed by witnessing such atrocity.
I was listening to
some people as panellist on news channel claiming they were deeply shocked and
pained by hearing about what happened to the girl. Some political people were
criticising each other and conveying their conspiracy theories. Each of them
wanted to show their grief on television and focused on bringing their views
and suggestions to limelight. I don’t know how much of this was actually true
or genuine but it leaves a big question mark when these faces are absent when
similar incident occur without being highlighted by media.
People are asking for capital punishment and
maybe it is needed to induce fear in the minds of offenders and rapist but it is
not the final solution. It is the people who must change in order to have some
significant impact. Only by changing our attitude towards women, any women
whether she is related to you or not; can we truly honour the death of girl who
died of injuries sustained by the brutal gang rape in streets of Delhi.