Slicing and dicing the recent rape in the capital

On the night of 16^th of December 2012, a 23 year old woman was brutally raped in a moving bus in the heart of our capital by six men. Then they threw her out on the road and fled. The Delhi Police cracked the case in the next 24 hours and took five of the six accused into its custody. As I write, the whole nation is enraged by the fact that this particular rape was done in the most brutal manner that the survivor had to be put on ventilator for the next few days and is even now in a critical condition. The physical and emotional violation which took place was barbaric and abhor able and the common man of this country is once again on the streets asking that justice be delivered at the earliest.

As before, and now again, the systemic failures within the government are coming out strikingly in public gaze. The Delhi government washed its hands saying that the Delhi Police is not under it, but comes under the Union Home Ministry so its hands are tied. The Union Home Ministry did step into the scene and elaborated on the measures it has taken and are going to take to prevent recurrence of such incidents. But my question is –Isn’t this a mockery of the trust of Delhites who through voting have elected a legitimate government but this government is not empowered to ensure their security. They are actually looked after by the Union government as the Delhi Police come directly under the Union Home Ministry. This is absolutely unreasonable and illogical. And what accountability does the Union Home Ministry have anyways, to ensure that Delhi‘s three crore citizens are safe, when they are not the real representatives of the Delhites. It is high time that we put the Delhi Police under the Delhi Government so that it looks into law and order situation than guarding the various ministers and VIPs of the Central government. The Union Government anyways has umpteen numbers of Central Paramilitary forces under them which they can utilize in case of any exigency. And in situations of conflicting opinions the Union Ministry could be vested with overriding powers over the Delhi Government.

The Union government has fared no better in discharging its duties, so far at least. To pacify the irate protesters at the Raisina Hill who were demanding that justice be done at the earliest, the union government had flimsy solutions like extending death penalty to cases of rape, immediate suspension of the beat constables who were in charge of the area where the rape took place and some others. As a matter of fact death penalty is already in the statutes and does get invoked in the rarest of the rare cases irrespective of the matter whether it is a rape or not. In fact the person to be hanged before Ajmal Kasab, Dhanajoy Chatterjee was found guilty for raping and murdering a 13 year old minor. Not only this, they have failed miserably to engage with the protestors. No minister was seen at the scene engaging or at least listening to the demands of the people. And it is only this apathy which got shown and lead to the protesters breaking the barricades at the foot of the North and South Blocks in the evening of 22^nd December, and clashed with the police. Why is this government always reactive and why it cannot be proactive in such instances is my question as a common citizen of this country. Look at the Obama administration. After the shootout at Newtown, Connecticut the way it engaged with the people was quite mature and healing. Soon after the unfortunate disaster took place, the President made a statement and later also attended the memorial service and then he came on television to propose and seek support for the steps he plans to take in controlling the misuse of guns. A brief outline of the plan was provided and even the timeline was set for January. All this show some seriousness of the Obama administration in dealing with the issue at hand. These are the ways in which the government of the day can reassure its constituents. Not by huddling up inside their plush offices and then showing up in Press Conferences with all the more illogical and tardy solutions like establishing a judicial commission to look into crimes against women. Can the government of the day win the trust of the masses in such immature and sluggish ways? This government is like a tortoise. When situations are hostile its head is always inside the shell and only during election does it come out.

Coming to the societal aspect of rape, I am so bemused to find elements in our own society who can do such dastardly act to a woman. It seems to me that the moral fabric of our society is under severe strain and the collective conscious has shrunk terribly. And there are telling facts which convey this. As per the data served by the National Crime Records Bureau, in 1971 there were 2,487 cases of rape which were reported in India and in 2011 there were 24,206 rape cases which were reported. Almost 870 % increase in rape incidents. Now this does call for some introspection. When the nation is developing the crimes against women and especially the heinous ones as rape is on the rise. Also there is data which makes us believe that not only a vast majority of these cases have survivors who were in age group of 18-30 years but also that the majority of the perpetrators of these crimes have been neighbors. These are some inferences which can be drawn. Now this is really discomforting. We usually tend to rely on our neighbors for help in times of need. The Bible says-“Love thy neighbor as yourself”. And it also commands that “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's”. And if our daughters are not safe even within the precincts of our own immediate neighborhood then it’s a matter of grave concern.

Ironically even literate states like Kerala are high on rape and cases of incest. You cannot be treating half of the population like thrash and still have a healthy society. The recent cases of incest which have come to light especially in Kerala are also of grave importance in this context and indicate the fact that our families have become dysfunctional at the first instance. As ‘family’ is the foundation for primary socialization for any individual in his or her formative early years if there is a virulent strain within our families then there is all certainty that this would infest the society also, and that to in an amplified form. And therefore incest magnifies and becomes rape when it transcends the limits of family to that of the larger society.

Our society needs a course correction now at least. Moral education is missing today from the school curriculums. The whole syllabus has become entrance exams oriented. As long as the syllabus is catering to these exams, parents also are not bothered. Because for them, what is important, is their child’s future with regard to his or her better employability. Whether he becomes a responsible citizen of the country or not, is secondary. If a society has to be functional then they has to be an agreed code of conduct. And having a uniform curriculum is one way of achieving this. We can only inculcate right values during the formative years of a child. Once he is out of school, professional studies take precedence over other things. Under such circumstances an overhaul of the school curriculum is the need of the hour. We need to have lessons imparted to the next generation on values of tolerance and teach them to practice respect towards women, in all walks of their life.

We are living in an anomic situation today wherein such social ills exist. But once these corrective actions take root in the society the change would be visible. But for such a change to happen and its fruits seen in our lifetime what we need is concerted action. We need action from those in politics, education, and civil society and above all, from us, the citizens of this nation.