A Day of Shame

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.