This brutal and shocking incident has shaken the whole country from a long sleep. A 23 year old physiotherapy student was gang raped, beaten, tortured and then thrown on road in a well populated area of the capital city of India, Delhi. Delhi, where a female chief minister is ruling since many years & where females are considered most unsafe. But females are not safe in every part of India.
What was wrong? Why was she victimized? Because she was a girl, she was out at night (at just 9:00pm) or because she resisted the lewd comments of drunken male citizens of this country.
Students are on road, female organizations are on road, & those who are not there are also agonized & agitated. Everyone is demanding justice, but nobody knows when the justice will arrive? Well being of the girl & getting justice for her is the most important priority for today. But then what for tomorrow? Will justice in one case will solve the whole problem, this case is only the tip of iceberg.
We Indians can glorify females as Maa Durga, Maa Lakshmi & with many more titles, but we Indians cannot protect our female citizens. We instruct our daughters not to go out in night, not to go out alone, not to wear jeans, not to interact with males. Why??? Why there is need for so many instructions??? Yes, there is need because our society, our system has failed to provide protection to our females. This case has happened at night, tomorrow when it will happen in day light, we will ask our girls to wear burka. I hope most of the citizens will admit that this is not the solution.
The solution is better protection, better law & order management and quick justice. One more thing which is required, that is change in values in the society. This case shows failure of law & order, but it also shows failure of our society. We have to accept that we have failed to inculcate proper values in our youth. This is a wake up call not only for police & government, but also for our society. We need to teach are sons, brothers & male friends to respect females & to consider females as human beings. The gentle man walking next to a female should stand with her for justice. And this is required not only in rape cases, but also in every case of eve teasing, groping & other sexual harassments.
Let us hope that this wake-up call does not go wasted…
Article by : Dr. Apurva Agrawal