By Bibhuti Pati
What dreams must have been dreamt by those eyes: definitely of a beautiful happy future. But, alas! Everything came shattering down for this girl from Rewadi the one who topped the CBSE examination. On her way to her calluses, her dream was ruthlessly murdered by those who assaulted her body. Why is every girl vulnerable today? Why does she live under the fear that anything can go wrong with her at any unpredictable moment? For this reason Delhi has earned the infamous title of being the rape city of the country.
Why have we not been able to crush this animal behavior towards our innocent girls, probably the biggest reason is delay in justice to the victim. Usually these cases take a long time reach their just conclusion. First and foremost it’s difficult to nab the criminal or the perpetrator and even if they are caught there is a political pressure to let them go scot free. And finally if the criminal manages to reach the court of justice the legal procedure is so long that the justice loses its significance for the victim. As they say justice delayed is justice denied.
Everyday innumerable cases of rape take place in the city but only a few make it to the headlines and front pages of the tabloids. And only in these few cases the criminals are expected to be hanging while the others remain elusive. During the rule of British there was a practice of sending the criminals to KALAPANI, but today even that punishment is mild for these criminals. In fact I do not hesitate to say that anyone guilty of outraging the modesty of a woman should be publicly punished as in most of the Arabian countries. Why do we hesitate to take this extreme measure against a human being who has shown crass animal behavior towards another human being? Does the gender of the former give him a license to perpetrate this animalism towards the latter?
It brings us to another important aspect: educating and sensitizing our children. We need to drill in the minds of the children the importance of gender equality and how man and woman are the two indispensable wheels of the social fabric where a one is weaker the whole social fabric will collapse. We need to empower the young minds with the sense of respect and dignity towards the opposite gender and then they can overhaul the mindset their elders where gender chauvinism is acutely discernible.
Another strong steps that is sorely needed is revolutionizing the police system. Imagine the pain of that girl who reaches the police station with the battered body and soul and who is asked where all she was touched…. The insensitivity of it all is I think no less than the crime itself. There is no one in the entire set up to speak a kind word and help assuage the pain of that broken soul. The ordeal does not end here, she is taken from pillar to post in the name of medical examination. She is moved around in the whole city from hospital to hospital, a painful treatment which is not she deserves. The absence of doctors or long waiting queue keep pushing the medical enquires during which the victim sometimes remains behind the bars herself. Thus the victim is more sinned against than sin itself.
Suggestions to improve the situation have been piling up but no serious thought has been given to it. How we can stop human trafficking, how rape victim should be treated with dignity, how the fear prevailing in her mind should be castigated etc etc. After the Nirvaya episode Justice Verma committee had given a series of suggestions which if implemented in true latter and spirit can bring about a serious change in the system. The Govt had created a Nirvaya fund but is that being used for improving the condition of many other Nirvayas .
Certainly the time is ripe to create in atmosphere of safety where a birth of girl child is not an unwelcome thing, where parents do not live under the constant fear of losing their daughter, be she two or three years old to the beasts lurking in the dark. It’s time that instead of that poor girl who has lost her everything should hide herself in shame and ignominy and the culprit roams free. And last but not least creating a social network where people readily come forward to help before a crime against an innocent is perpetrated or the public does not fear the state machinery if they come forth to speak, protect and defend the rights of an injured fellow human being.
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