Time To Talk About Rape

A pregnant woman’s gang rape was captured on video in Sudan. Later on, charged with adultery she was handed a prison sentence. In India, a 23-year-old student was attacked, raped and murdered by four men on her way home from work. More disgusting still: a 14-month-old baby girl of the same nation, was raped by an army corporal. 

In the latest news, two days after Daughter’s Day, yet another young girl’s life in India was brutally snuffed out. The 19-year-old died in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, 15 days after she was allegedly gang-raped and tortured in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras by a group of upper-caste men.

She was the fifth girl and third Dalit girl who was allegedly raped and brutally murdered in the last two months in UP.

Gang rape, brutal murder, another life lost. A spine-chilling cycle followed by the usual knee jerk reactions- protests and demonstrations, online petitions, candle marches-all demanding that the accused be hanged. Yes, they deserve death. But, what about the victim? Can she be brought back? Can the crime be undone. Has and will death penalty stop rapes? 

It hasn't and it will not. 

The rot runs deeper.

Victim blaming and slut-shaming are common in cases of sexual assault. In the  case of a veterinarian from Telangana, the State’s home minister said that the victim should have called the police. We always try to find faults with the victim, where she erred and what she could’ve done to avert the tragedy. Nirbhaya was blamed for being out at late hours, in male company and dressed in western attire. Thus, the inference drawn was that ‘she asked for it.’ It is common to impose restrictions on women in the garb of protection. Women should not venture alone at night, they should stay away from the opposite sex, desist from wearing revealing clothes or anything that may attract unwanted attention, abstain from drinking, etc. The list is endless. Instead of ensuring their safety by taking proactive steps, it’s easier for us to curb their independence. This way, whenever something goes wrong, we can easily blame her for transgressing the social "norms" and jeopardizing her own safety. 

Easier to blame a victim than the society it seems. 

To make things more bleak, awarding death penalty is subjected to the ‘rarest of rare cases’. They say the death sentence is to be pronounced only in those cases where the crime has been committed in an extremely cruel, barbaric or gruesome manner so as to be covered in the category of rarest of rare cases. There are trillions of laws in our country to save a criminal for ages. Take the case of nirbhaya. It took seven years for its justice .

Despite several amendments, incidences of rape continue unabated. In fact, now we hear cases of extreme brutality. The general perception is that since the laws have been made more stringent, rapists have resorted to extreme measures in a bid to destroy the evidence. But, the question remains- Is provision for death punishment a deterrence? If so then why haven’t murders stopped? Why are women still being gang raped, minor girls, being sexually assaulted? 

For the recent case, the 19-year-old – who belongs to a marginalised group formerly known as “untouchables” – was assaulted in a field outside her village in the northern Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district on September 14.The attack on the teenager was the latest case highlighting sexual and other forms of violence against India’s 200 million Dalits, who are on the lowest rung of the caste system and have historically faced discrimination despite laws to protect them.

Now the matter is not to just journalise the happening of the rapes and to punish the criminal but to stop rapes and violence in India completely . 

This all can be done by a good and healthy mentality shaped by a healthy society. It is the society that shapes their attitudes and beliefs that give rise to their aspirations. Centuries of patriarchy have conditioned men to believe in their superiority and to look down upon women as inferior beings. The cosmetic industry, media, entertainment even sports thrive on the objectification of women. We have songs comparing women to ‘Tandoori Murgi’, ‘coca-cola’ or ‘gud ki dali’ beckoning men to consume them. The caste system is another slur on our culture and needs to be abolished. Lower caste women are raped with impunity by men belonging to higher castes. Till now many people on the street think that the rapes which are happening are the fault of the girl not the boy . The YouTube channel called The print asked the  common people on roads , “why rapes happen” , and the answers were so illogical and mean that you will also start to wonder, "What kind of society  am I living in ?" Pornography is the leading industry constantly presenting women as saleable commodities and encouraging consumer culture. Since women are reduced to mere bodies so they can be violated and ravished sans any guilt.

We also need to seriously consider legalization of prostitution. Countries that have legalized prostitution (Netherlands, Austria, Brazil, etc.) have shown a remarkable decrease in cases of sexual violence. Society also needs to loosen up. Our morally stiff society shuns all sorts of interactions between unmarried men and women. Sex is taboo and entails a social stigma. 

Rape is a silent epidemic

Statistics are very hard to come by.  Many men and women don’t – or can’t easily - report their rapes. In some countries, you can be jailed for reporting rape, and in others, you and your family are shamed into silence. I can confidently say every one of you reading this knows someone who has survived rape and some of you are survivors of rape.

We need to educate young boys and girls to respect minds, bodies, and souls; to treat each other as equals, to encourage victims to step forward, report and stop sexual abuse. We need to teach that violence against women is never okay. People need to understand and see rape for what it is. The most heinous crime of all. One that destroys the victim and the receiver of the news, in varying degrees.

We are all rightfully disgusted and shocked when we hear these stories. Yet we don't talk about rape, and by not doing so, we silently disregard the survivors whom we hurt as our silence ignores their story and their need for justice.

 

So let's take this recent case in Uttar Pradesh  as a wake call. It is high time that we all stand together and claim for strict laws not just against rapes but also towards its prevention.

Being a Youth of India , I say that we don't want any candle march , we don't want any politicised speech on the matter, we don’t want any celebrity or film star giving his or her opinion. What we want is change.

Change for strict laws that sends shivers down the spine of the perpetrator before he even acts. Change in the perception of society, one that shames the people for shaming others. And above all, change in ourselves to no longer treat rape with silence but to scream as loudly as we can to spread a message loud and clear:

" No, we don't condone it. No, we don't support it. The perpetrator is a monster. No human will condone it."

#raise your voice

#stay safe stay home

Written by : Shashwata samanta 

Instagram: @i_am_the_ruler_of_cosmos