As women living in India, how
many of us can say they have never felt scared being out after the dark, or
even during the day (depending on which part of the country we live in)? Walking
the roads in India for women was never safe, and it still is not. If anything,
it has only become worse. Women earlier were used to being whistled at, hearing
the lewd comments being passed, teased and so on and so forth. We were taught
to mind our ways, ignore such men, and be back home before sunset. Now, with so
much ‘progress’ that our country has supposedly made, the eve-teasers, as they
have always been called, too have graduated to become rapists? The North, in
particular has been in the news again and again in the past few months for
rapes- nothing was done except giving sympathy and monetary compensation to the
victim’s family (at best!!!).
Unless lawmakers think it
through, and make tougher laws to deal with use and abuse of the laws, the loop-holes,
the implementation and the corrupt system that engulfs it all….we will just
feel sorry for the victims, and hope we do not have to go through that pain at
personal level.
What is the right punishment
anyway for a rapist? Should he (/they)
be hanged to death publicly, ostracized from the community, castrated (as most
of the women feel), beaten and shamed publicly, or should we just tell
ourselves that we cannot stoop to their level and let them just serve a few
years in prison? What can be done with the current rotten state of India’s
legal, political and administrative system? The truth is, a rapist or his
family can never understand the victim’s pain, the emotional scarring, and the
mental trauma. A rapist deserves to feel that pain, to wallow in the same
sadness, to feel the burning sensation of an unwanted touch, to acknowledge
that what he did was utterly and absolutely wrong…
What is the best way then to teach him a lesson, to punish him so anyone
even tempted to rape thinks thrice before putting his temptation before him….????
Is there a way to change mentality
really?
Can we make the men on those
streets, public spaces and offices and everywhere else respect women if they
have not learnt it in their own families and surroundings?
We need to redo the emotional
wiring of these men I think…if there is way to do it.
