Are we encouraging it?

Rape is nothing new to India, sadly this is a fact. It’s also a fact that women are still treated badly pretty much everywhere in the country. We deny it often. Even in our everyday lives, we end up denying it. The stereotypes that we have managed to create for the women in our society needs to be changed.

Reflecting on the procedures that follow once a rape is registered it seems to me that the process has been designed to keep abused women away for fear of public shame. This public shame needs to go away. Men need to man up and grow some balls. Why I say that is because we don’t speak out for another, we don’t speak out for injustice anymore. We prefer to walk our different roads if we have to but who wants to get involved with gundas, drunks and whatnot. A rape has happened because I kept silent, a rape has happened because I did not stop that young man from teasing that young girl. Think about it. A rape has happened because I was too much of a coward to offer a lady a ride in a respectable way. For once without becoming the heinous thing that is worse than any animal, insect and whatever gross things we can manage to imagine, for once without becoming that coward of a coward, open your eyes and your conscience. Stop a rape before it happens.

The fear that exists in our society and in our minds needs to be confronted. You are equally to blame is a human being is being mistreated in front of you and you do nothing. But your fear prevents you from speaking out, reaching out or even lashing out. Instead you will rant about it, talk about it and text about it. You are equally to blame if you have been even a silent spectator. Where is your humanity then? Where is our humanity now? I am talking about everyone who has ever seen a small thing like an eve teasing incident, molestation or even suggestive behavior and those dirty glances when a man checks out everything on a woman’s body and chosen to ignore it. The law is not going to do it. Forget it. That sounds absurd that we expect that a law for this kind of a thing; sometimes even a provocative stare crosses all heights of derogation and degradation, so are we going to make up a law for that? A lot many of us do it. A lot many of us are party to it and a lot many of us simply choose to ignore it. If you have any balls at all, will stop the next one from happening at all, if you consider yourself a human being then it is your responsibility to prevent injustice to another. No amount of activism can change anything in this regard. Activism has been made a joke by the ones in power, the media and each of every one of us. We believe that we can speak but remain passive otherwise and what’s your excuse? Well I am just too busy. I have too many responsibilities; blah and blah. The one I think gets me angry the most is when we end up saying; I don’t know where to start! O but we are all afraid of something. We all have something to protect but we don’t protect our humanity. What then is the point of living at all?