India Bleeds

The Preamble to our Constitution reads:

‘We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY, of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, DO HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.'

The Preamble explicitly highlights Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity as the basis of our constitution. I remember in school - it was mandatory for us to learn the Preamble verbatim. I always took pride in knowing the Preamble by heart. With so many un-consitutional incidents happening year-after-year, I cannot be sure about that 'pride' anymore. 

As India bleeds today, I wonder how our freedom fighters would have felt had any of them been around to witness this state of affairs! We have a judiciary but no independence of judiciary for extreme crimes like rape, that continues to be a 'baillable offence'.

The police, law courts, or politicians never have any deadline for completing any work they undertake. Isn't that appalling? We, as the 'aam janta' have dates to go and cast our votes, dates to register for our voter IDs, dates to submit our electricity bills and dates to file our income tax. There is heavy penalty if we dont meet the deadlines.

But when it comes to the government:
1. No dates to build better roads
2. No dates to punish criminals
3. No dates to punish corrupt politicians
4. No dates to hang terrorists
5. NO PENALTY if they dont make or meet deadlines. Safety and security of the nation is always LAST PRIORITY.

WHY THIS DIFFERENCE when we are all part of the same country and look up to the same Indian Constitution? 

The latest incident which has shaken all of us is the gruesome crime in Delhi. The crime took place on December 16; the victim suffered for a fortnight and breathed her last on December 29. The media is all over the place. The Delhi protesters have shown tremendous courage and are contunuing their fight for justice braving all odds. They have inspired us in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Jammu, Chennai and many other cities. The youth is protesting and voicing their opinion all across the country. It is a matter of grief and a cause of protest for each and every one of us.

BUT, the government has done NOTHING. They are planning to implement better laws in February 2013. WHY WAIT TILL FEBRUARY? WILL IT TAKE ONE MONTH to make stricter laws? Even if February, why is there no concrete date? Does that mean people continue to commit such ghastly crimes till new laws come up? Is that the excuse the police or government will give if another such crime is attempted? Even when this incident is so fresh in our minds, perverts in many parts of the country have the guts to continue committing crime against women. And government officials say, 'we need to think'! What were they doing all these years? When are these THINK TANKS going to act?

While the news channels have started displaying pictures of the criminals of the Delhi brutality- the government has made no effort to name them or share details. Why are we protecting the criminals? When I open the newspaper everyday, there are headlines like " 16 year old raped" or "42 year old gangraped in village" etc. Why can't it be written as "3 drunken goons named X, Y, Z commit rape in a village"? Why don't we focus on the criminals instead of further victimising the victim?

In the Delhi case, the criminals Ram Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh and Akshay Singh (Thakur) are the culprits. I still dont know the name of the 6th offender. I hope we have a law whereby we can expose identities of criminals as soon as the police arrests them. If they have the guts to commit such a heinous crime, dont we have the courage to name them? 

The Delhi case has acted as a catalyst- an eye opener for common people like us. However, this has also turned into a war between the government and the people. The police are safeguarding the government from the public! If the government continues to ignore the people of India – mobocracy will take over democracy in no time.

As we come to the end of 2012, India continues to bleed. The youth in the country are not willing to wait anymore. We have had enough!

The height of tolerance!

' These perverts should be hanged till death'

'Oh no, that won't help. Life imprisonment of 20 years should be the minimum punishment. Rather, I'd say something gruesome should be done with the rapists.'

The above is an extract from a conversation between two friends. As India is discussing the heinous rape in New Delhi that has shocked India once again, some pervert in some part of this country is committing this ghastly crime for the 'n-th' time. I can feel a shiver down my spine even to think of such a beastly act. How ironical that my last blog was about celebrating 'International Girl Child's Day'.

Respect for women is not in-built in our social system. We are trained to respect the 'goddess' and 'mother India'. But the matter gets diluted when we have 'real' people in front of us to deal with. 'Ideal sons and daughters' come alive only in Bollywood blockbusters. Children who see their mothers being beaten up by their fathers more than often grow up to repeat the same actions- the sons beat their mothers, wives and daughters.

What are we doing to prevent such cowardly acts and atrocious crimes?

Nothing.

Instead of getting justice for the victim, we are asking our women not to travel alone at night. Worse, we teach them to ignore eve-teasers; if we react - the consequence won't be good for the woman! If we lodge a police complaint, our policeman asks us 'Madam, aap itni raat ko akele sadak pe kya kar rahi thi?' (Madam, what were you doing alone on the streets at night!).

We - as in a select section of people in the society are protesting against such crimes through protest marches, media discussions, newspaper reports, blog posts et al. But we are still awaiting ACTION and REACTION from the government and our law courts. Instead of discussing the victim, why can't the government or media flash photographs of the criminals everywhere and publicly humiliate them? Why can't there be fast-track courts to close these cases quickly?

We are a very tolerant society. We tolerate corrupt politicians, we tolerate rape, we tolerate female foeticide, we tolerate child abuse, we tolerate cruelty against animals...and more ! Corruption has invaded each one of us and we fail to 'think beyond' what we tolerate. So do we end up tolerating everything? Of course we don't. We fight back when a vegetable vendor doesn't give us a 5 rupee discount, we scream when the cab driver doesnt have a 'change' to return, we growl when a trans-gender person comes begging for some money. And of course we don't tolerate bad employees and bad bosses. We can go to any extremes to get rid of them to make our lives better.

When it comes to social issues- serious ones like this- we don't interfere in other people's business! We expect the police to take action and the government to act- none of which usually happens. Political connections win all battles. And victims? Well they continue to be victimized. We read it in the papers and then forget it next day.

We want criminals to be brutally punished for atrocities against women!

Why can't we give Taliban-ish punishments to the perverts- chop off their hands and legs? Or beat them up brutally and keep them inside a cage with a hungry hyena? Not a lion or tiger- but a hungry, ravaneous hyena- a real violent one. The public should beat them up brutally and then cage them along with a hungry hyena. While the hyena eats up one of the culprits bit-by bit, the other perverted men should be chained outside the cage awaiting their turn to be the hyena's next prey. I've heard that only spotted hyenas are man eaters. Hope we can find a good number of them in India.

What happens in reality?

Gangrape victims are treated as outcasts in our society. People are more interested in discussing the victims rather than the culprits. Why did the victim go out alone or what was she doing on the 'unsafe' road in the dead of the night or 'oh she was drunk' ?- are loose comments which people make to boost their ego and to justify their survival in a 'horribly tolerant' society.

Teach them when they are young 

When a son is born in the family, teach him to respect his mother, his sister, and his friend. Don't ask him to protect them. Ask him to behave himself so that the women in his family feel comfortable in his presence. Every school should create awareness about these crimes among young boys. Don't train your girls to be ladylike and fragile. Teach your boys to behave like gentlemen.

LET US NOT STOP PROTESTING TILL THE GUILTY ARE BRUTALLY PUNISHED.

International Girl Child Day - Oct 11, 2012

Today is International Girl Child Day (Oct 11). This is significant as Oct 11, 2012 marks the start of this event and 2012 is the first year that this day is being celebrated. For me, the biggest takeaway from observing a day such as this is the 'awareness' it generates. May be there will be one less female foeticide, one less child marriage, one less child abuse case. Again - may be one more girl will go to school, may be one more abandoned girl will find a good home, one more girl will get good nutrition... the wishlist is endless.

No matter how much we do to ameliorate the plight of the girl child, it is not enough. It will take us decades and generations to really be able to see the difference. Our attitude towards women in our families is a reflection of how we perceive a girl child who is not part of our family, or our immediate social circles. People can make hefty donations or conduct fund-raising campaigns to help a girl child. But even among those you will find some who are either making a donation to get tax benefits or those who join a fund-raiser volunteering campaign to bag a certificate on a summer-internship project !

I hope more people come forward to spend time in educating the girl child, starting with their own family. In villages, even in 2012 there are instances when child marriage is considered auspicious and education of girls a 'crime'.

Food, nutrition, education and respect-- every girl child's fundamental need. Every girl is special and deserves to celebrate her childhood, cherish her fun-times and receive education and nutrition. I dont think this is an event to be celebrated only by NGOs, social reformers and feminists. It is an occasion that has relevance to all of us...all of whom have loved a girl child and seen one in the family or been one herself.

Cheers to this cause! Happy International Girl Child Day to all. May the road ahead point to progress.