We are always taught from our childhood to become an engineer or doctor, for they are the ‘noblest’ professions and also because our society fails to accept other jobs as equivalent or even a job in itself. The victim in the recent case in Hyderabad was a doctor. She was a simple woman. And yet, she was raped and burned alive. An incident that in itself speaks volumes about the lost case of humanity among fellow humans. She lost her life, like many others, to the desire of some men who merely saw her as a means of their satisfaction. What has become of humanity is the question of the hour.
The country that is believed to be “Bharat Mata” reports the maximum number of rape cases, each as horrendous and gruesome as the other. Unfortunately, our activism is limited only to street demonstrations, candle light marches, changing of display pictures on our profiles or worst just ignoring the whole episode because this is a daily matter now. Perhaps our biggest flaw is our take on such matters for instead of getting strict laws into action, we either play the victim blame game or we start telling our daughters to stay safe, not to travel alone, not to have any late night outings and in extreme scenarios, always be accompanied by some family member. The drastic measures which are put into place for a woman by her parents, brother, husband etc only suffocate her and her dreams.
Why is it that the gender which experiences the crime is made to take intense measures for her security and safety while other gender is left to do as they will? Is this the way we are trying to keep the daughters of India safe?
Instead of telling women what to do, why aren’t men shown the mirror? Why can’t they be taught to respect women apart from their mothers and sisters? Why can’t we gather courage to question the upbringing in our culture? The deep rooted patriarchal setup affects us all, knowingly or unknowingly. The mentality that is brewed in the minds of boys from the very day they are born often lays the foundation for such acts of inhumanity. Their acts are always appreciated, their faults hidden or settled in a quiet manner and they always have the backing of the entire family.
Girls, on the other hand, are suppressed, taught to be quiet and taught to stay within the boundaries set for them. With such cases happening only the boundations on the women are increased whereas the men are not even made a part of such discussions. Our flawed bureaucracy and judicial systems along with no intact law makes the matter worse. They have let people experiment with their crimes and run free.
It’s time to understand that both sexes need to be educated about each other, so that at least humanity can prevail. Imparting the outdated curriculum and completely setting aside the moral teaching and sex education is the way forward for an impending doom, the start of which is already being witnessed. There is a dire need to bring a change in the parental upbringing of the child along with sensitization from an early age. The more we run from sex education, such crimes will keep on rising and without proper laws in place, the perpetrators will roam free. Our silence on such incidents only makes it evident that bringing a girl child in this world is indeed a crime. No woman should feel unsafe and no woman is just a piece of flesh. Respect her a human!
