By Barnes Mawrie
The recent death of a Delhi girl who was brutally raped has sparked off a nationwide protest like never before. Rape crimes in India are on the rise. This just shows how unsafe is our country for women. Every Indian man should hang his head in shame to see that our women are being victimized in such a manner. To add insult to injury more reports of rape cases have come even after the death of the girl. What attitude does our nation exhibit to the outside world? It is an attitude of male chauvinism and female victimization. It is a national shame to see that after over fifty years of independence women are still not yet liberated. First of all, our women are still victims of social discrimination. They are still considered as less equal to men. The on-going female infanticide in many parts of our country proves that women are unwanted or looked upon as a burden to society. How many baby girls have not even seen the light of day because they have been murdered in their mothers’ wombs? How many girl children have been discarded, disowned or even sold by their parents who are unwilling to nurture them? Secondly, women in many parts of India are “free but everywhere in chains” as Rousseau would say. They are slaves with no right of choice even for marriage. They are treated as family or caste property and so they have no freedom to marry outside their castes or act independently.
The so called honour killing is applicable for women and not for men. How many innocent young girls have been mercilessly slain by their family members or caste members because they happen to love someone outside their caste? From time to time we hear horrific reports of honour killings which portray our country as barbaric and uncivilized. Honour killing is nothing less than a crime against humanity which deserves stringent legal action. Those who practice it are no less than murderers. Thirdly, women in many communities in India, are treated like commodities who could be bought and sold like commodities. The age-old practice of dowry is a perpetuation of such injustices against women. Dowry might have been well-intentioned at the beginning but as it is being practiced now it has degenerated into an evil practice. It has become a mechanism for male aggrandizement and selfish gain. Thus women are treated according to their monetary worth. In such a system a poor woman is bound to suffer for the rest of her married life. Dowry is a vicious cycle because it aggravates female infanticide. One reason why poorer families dread the birth of a girl child and choose to abort female infants, is because they cannot afford to provide dowries for their daughters. Fourthly, in some communities of rural India, girls are not allowed to go to school or be educated. They are doomed to become ignorant housewives for the rest of their lives. Fifthly, in some quarters of our country many prohibitory laws are imposed on women and not on men.
The Khap Panchayat laws imposed by some villages in North India prohibit girls even from using mobile phones and restrict their movements. The men folk on the other hand enjoy freedom to the full, even the freedom to do evil. A Khap Panchayat in Haryana even opposed harsh punishment on rapists. When a Dalit girl in Haryana who was gang raped committed suicide, the Khap Panchayat blamed the parents for not marrying her earlier instead of punishing the culprits. Sixthly, women in India have to suffer a biased treatment in society. Hundreds of rapists down through the years have escaped scot free only with nominal punishments and yet how many lives of young girls and women victims of rapes and molestation have been destroyed. Why is a molested woman looked upon with contempt by society and not a rapist man? This is sheer injustice and prejudice. I could go on enumerating instances of discrimination and injustice against women perpetrated in our country, but it suffices to mention just these few above. The mass protest that is going on is actually long overdue for cases of rape are many and those that have not been reported are still many more. Women have always been the silent victims of such male-centered crimes. Many victims of rape all over our country are still struggling to put their lives back on track while justice for them is still being denied. It is time that India enacts robust laws against such crimes. For this the government needs to put politics aside and think and act with responsibility and be sensitive to the sufferings of millions of women and a readiness to heed to their just demands. Just because of vote banks, human values cannot be sacrificed. Our leaders should behave like statesmen and not like selfish politicians.