Overcoming personal inertia is a huge challenge. And so here I am writing on my blog after a real long time. Many things came in my way of finding time out to write, some really important and some not so. Or may be there wasn't any issue/ topic motivating enough for me to ponder about.
But the year that ended, 2012 definitely gave all of us (not only India, but humanity at large) to really step back and assess, where we are heading? Many are writing about this subject and the media is full of interesting and introspective thoughts about this unfortunate event. May be a social tipping point for us in India.
The brutal, inhuman gang rape of a 23 year old young girl in a moving Bus by 6 or 7 men (the number of culprits seems to be varying), not only that, but the fact that they also physically brutalised her to the point of killing her and then dumping her naked (semi-naked), severely beaten form on the side of the road. Left to die! The bus in which the rape was taking place went on a joy ride for more than 40 minutes when this heinous crime continued and there wasn't a single police picketing or patrolling van which stopped them...Shame on our police force.
Aptly called 'Daughter of India' by the media. We did to you what we do all the time to our daughters :( We try to kill them while still a foetus. Then we try to kill you when you are a toddler. This we do by burning you with cigarettes, or feeding you to dogs or simply throwing you down 2-3 floors. If you still survive & grow up, we rape you & leave you to die. In-between if you fall in love, then we have another reason to kill you, in the name of our family honor. If you still survive, then there is dowry as an opportunity to burn you to death....and even then if you survive....you grow up to be a Sunita williams or a Kalpana Chawal or a Saina Nehwal & forgetting all this, you selflessly bring glory to our nation...????
The fact that most of these men belong to a socially and economically backward part of the society. Fact that after committing this inhuman crime, they went about their life normally as if nothing had happened. The fact that when arrested by the Police most of them were remorseless, non apologetic about the severity of their crime.
That young girl had not done anything wrong to meet such a tragic end. She was a normal girl from a semi-urban lower income family. Full of dreams and ambition to make a better life for herself and her family by way of education. Her parents spent money which they could very well not afford to spend on the education of their darling daughter. Which in itself is commendable. In a nation (particularly that part of the country from where the girl's parents hail), girls are often ignored when it comes to proving opportunities and education.
We are a nation bewildered. We do not know what to think and how to accept this ugly aspect of our society. The fact that such people are roaming free on our streets. Who can rape and ruthlessly beat and kill a young girl and then go about life as normal as if nothing has happened. They are criminals harder than the most hardened. What is further shocking is that the main culprit was a School bus driver who use to ferry little children from their school to homes. That we leave our little innocent children in the company of such criminals.
The fact that our law enforcement agencies are unable to pull out and separate these criminal minded people from the society. That the criminals are roaming freely in our society, daring and challenging our very safety and security.
Who has failed whom? The nation has definitely failed women citizens. That is we think of them as citizens! Or are they just an object of consumption. A home maker to cook and clean the house, a mother to baby-sit her children and look after them, a wife to wash and clean ....a women is only important for what she can do for her family. The state has no recognition for her. No focus.
We have all collectively failed this young life...
First treat women as a equal right, equal opportunity citizen of India...give them their due rights as a citizen....it is only second to this that she is a wife, daughter, sister.... when any crime against a woman happens, our first reaction is..oh..she is someone's daughter.....blah blah blah...No first and foremost she is a citizen of India! We are holding on to the wrong end of the stick...let's get that correct...
Our collective conscience is sleeping...Anesthesia....time to wake up, else it will be too late!!!
What is the solution. Shift the focus on women's safety. Bring it in the Government's charter. Fast track courts and quick and harsh punishments to the convicts....
I am very saddened by the young brave girls death. For she hanged on till the very last second. Goodbye dear...wish you a happy life somewhere else...some time else...when you live and die with greater dignity..May god bless you and thank-you for having woken us up....to look at our women with greater respect...
May god give strength to your parents and brothers to cope with this loss.
