SHE IS not the only one; there would have been countless girls who have gone unnoticed and unreported. The suffering shall continue for the parents’ family and friends for a long, long time. The stigma and the trauma associated with this horrific incident shall always remain fresh in their minds. Every time they board a bus, this incident will flash in front of their eyes like a fresh wound. No words, no solace, no nothing can fill her void. No sympathy, and no empathy, is good enough to stop the hurt and pain. The girl was destined to go and has gone, she has become an angel, and has left us all shaken beyond words.
Now, the onus is on us, are we going to improve our behavior, will we stop eve teasing? Will we stop passing lucid remarks? Will we stop ogling? Will we stop female feticide? Will we stop child marriage and labour? For all I care, will we behave in a cultured manner? I look forward to your and the response of people around you.
I read an article by Mr Abhishekh Manu Singhvi in The Times of India who has given out a long list of how to improve the judicial process. I want to ask him why he was sleeping till now. Suddenly, he is giving points that his government in the last few years could have implemented. He doesn’t speak about how he would like to introduce these laws into the parliament and then the society. He also doesn’t lay down the time frame for the government as to when will they be able to recruit that many people to dispose of cases pending for years. He doesn’t speak of why these vacancies have been kept vacant?
He also doesn’t speak as to how will the present infrastructure cope up with the sudden expansion? In fact, he doesn’t speak of any infrastructure at all. Well, all said and done, we are an evolving democracy; we will wake up only when such incidents keep happening. In fact not only rape, it should be murder and others.
We need to stop this tomfoolery altogether and get down to brass tracks. Women in India can never be safe till the time we have gender discrimination in our homes. The child sees what is happening to women folk at home and as he grows he too behaves in that manner. I feel that even our “purda” or veil system or the so called “ghoonghat”, is also responsible for a few such happenings. You all may not agree, but I have seen this in very well to do families. I do not know why do the ladies have to hide their faces from elders and in laws - are they scary? Or are they not worth showing our faces to, in today’s context. This leads to all such speculations of the dirty kind and there after various family related crimes, is my belief. Respect for elders is at one place, but the mentality needs to change.
The dissection of how and why everything happened, and how everything needs to be done has been done enough. People have played politics and people have expressed their anger and emotions, now we need someone to combine all this together and frame such laws that punishment given henceforth is a deterrent, is exemplary and the law along with the law enforcing agency has some teeth. I feel quite helpless, as I can just put my thoughts on paper but can’t convert it into action.
We can hope and just hope that we shall see that in our life time. Jan Lokpal has taken 50 years to re-surface, and is still in the pipeline; the new law we are dreaming of may take a year or two less. I may not be there to see it, but my next generation needs to be protected by such species of the human kind. We can save the tiger later. Can we do it, why not, is my answer, but are we willing to do it, I leave this as food for thought, as I wonder will there be more Nirbhayas to shake us from our slumber?
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