Urban Mirror

Dr. Smita Pandey

Our Constitution guarantees us  the Right to Equality which encompasses every conceivable freedom that women can aspire for the advancement and fulfilment of their immense potential. Our ethos and culture venerate women and our prominent festivals are defined by even worshipping  girls in the form of goddesses. Unlike the West, where females were enfranchised in early twentieth century, some like Switzerland got  to vote in 1971 only, after decades of feisty suffragette movements, we got our voting rights, at par with men, with the onset of Independence. Unlike even the USA, where  women got to vote in 1921 only, and which still awaits a female President, India has already had women occupying all the premier constitutional posts . Indira Gandhi’s Prime Ministership is still defined as being more formidable than most of her successors. Our prominent political parties have dynamic women heading them and prominent States have had strong female Chief minister’s too. Women have successfully shattered glass ceilings in all domains and  head top organizations nationally and globally. Gender is not a hinderance to growth anymore. We  have arrived.

Sadly, it is not so. Markers of female security are horrifying and totally negate their empowerment. Violence against women is the worst pandemic pan India. Abduction, molestation, rape, torture, stalking, voyeurism, acid attacks, violence in manifest forms-against females is a common phenomenon. Every two minutes a women is a victim of crime. Every fifteen minutes, a  female suffers barbaric rape.

The notorious bestiality of the Kathua rape case recently  exemplifies how even stringent POSCO Act is not enough to deter these beastly men. Delhi has acquired notoriety as the Rape capital .There is more than a ten-fold increase in rape cases in India in the past decades. These frightening figures are  a very conservative estimate as most of the cases of  sexual violence go unreported. Hence, every government is guilty and has the blood of these vulnerable innocent girls on its dirty hands.

Every two days we  have a dowry related death. Governance has totally and miserably failed to protect its most precious resource-the girl child tall claims and multifarious schemes notwithstanding. The callous, inefficient policing system is more fixated on controlling crime by fudging statistics and proving that the crime rate has reduced by not registering FIRs even in the most heinous cases. When the perpetrator is a powerful VIP, or a local bahubali, or a moneyed person, the stakes become even higher and as is the norm in every high profile investigation, the rule of law is put in abeyance. For  the poor  and marginalized, already suffering the onslaught of corrupt and inept governance, fighting for justice for their raped girl becomes a daunting challenge. Currently, it will take more than two decades to tackle the huge build-up of cases against minors alone. No fast track court is there to deliver justice  and local administration remains a mute spectator. Muscle power or money suffice to ensure the sexual predator goes scot-free even though in a majority of such cases, as high as 80 percent, the identity  of the  criminal is known to the hapless victim and her family. The hostile exploitative environment allows this Rape Hell to continue.  

Most crimes against women continue unchecked because of the total failure of law and order machinery to punish these criminals. The  Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act  was passed as far back as 1956 but forced prostitution and slave labor have increased  tremendously.  Constitutional  safeguards  and stringent laws are  there in abundance to protect us. Action to implement them is constantly lacking. Action is also in alleviating poverty and unemployment -the primary cause of sexual exploitation of the girl child and her elders. Skewed sex ratio is the result where female foeticide is illegally  practiced  as it becomes a burden to protect the honor of a girl. Girls are primary victims of Honor killings, which continue to be the norm of khap panchayats and  not a single  leader has shown the courage to confront and eliminate this horrific practice. Vote bank politics triumphs over  vanquishing Evil every time.

Gang rapes are frequent in rural areas. Caste based hegemony is asserted by preying upon females of  allegedly lower castes. Boys will be Boys and a machismo culture condone this venality. Political rhetoric flourishes after these appalling  incidents and provides our esteemed leaders with photo opportunities and Live TV debates to score points of each other -the ground realities do not change as the next even more gruesome incident awaits to make  fresh headlines . In Kathua, politics stooped to a new low-communalisation. Huge demonstrations  were organized in support of the rapists  and sectarian ideology used to evade justice. Similarly insidious ploys ,like Love jihad , are now being used to harass girls and their families and poison the environment with the usual sinister agenda  of polarizing the electorate and harvesting votes.

This  menacing  criminality is defining governance ,or rather lack of it throughout  India. The brutal Unnao rape case involving a ruling party MLA is a template of the contempt that our legislators have for the law . Every party rides to power on   electoral promise of controlling crime,  but after forming the government there is little change -the same cover ups continue. The  administration  remains inert  and is compelled to act`against goons of ruling regime only after the intervention of the High Courts and   huge public anger and outcry. The registration of FIR in Unnao rape case, took nearly a year, a pointer to how well the system works in protecting the perpetrators of crime. The subsequent  death of  the father of the rape victim in judicial custody crucifies this evil nexus of lawbreakers and law enforcers. Meaningless sloganeering like “bullet for bullet” continues alongside rising crimes, especially against women.

Justice is jettisoned repeatedly. Corrupt  governance is committed to ensuring that it is so. Ensuring Justice for all  needs  ousting and punishing the criminal rapists, thugs, mafia dons and henchmen of  all  political parties, especially those in power. Who will bell these  monsters whom we the people have elected to sacred  office ? Our culture of inaction is showing its inevitable result. We are the fourth most unsafe country for women travellers to even visit. Allowing  sexual offenders to remain unchecked  on their nefarious course has made India the most dangerous country in the world today. It is a matter of  profound shame that we are ‘topping’ in the most evil crime against half of our populace. When are we going to correct this gravest of grave crime? We are living in ‘dangerous’  times which we have co created with our legislators. We have  to correct our apathetic, timid, fearful mentality  and facilitate  development of a  just, law abiding, righteous politics . We have to elect representatives who have the vision and courageous commitment  to  transform this tainted moral environment and  make the Freedoms and  Equality granted in our Constitution a Reality. (Courtsey Images: IBtimes,UK)