The Kolkata rape incident is not the only one of its sort in India. In fact, India is not the only country where you get to see gender based violence happening on a massive scale. The whole world has become a danger zone for women and nothing can be more alarming then that.
A young trainee doctor at Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College Hospital was raped and murdered brutally earlier this month. The case got nationwide attention as soon as it hit the media’s corridors, and the whole country felt the barbarity of this heinous incident.
Yes, it happens. Sometimes human tragedies go beyond the horizons of hope and resilience shattering all little ramnants of life that we seldom get to see.
It is to be remembered here that this is all happening in a country with a population of 1.45 billion of which 48.42% are women. In 2016, more than 39,000 rape cases were registered and this number has stayed more than 30,000 since that every year. These are the registered cases only. And here, only one form of sexual and gender based violence aka rape is the subject.
How does a society go to this extent of lawlessness and ignorance? Why human beings end up committing such atrocities repeatedly that confirm the Hobbesian analysis of human nature? Will women always stay nothing more than an “object” to be used?
These are the questions existing at the macrocosm.
What were the law enforcement agencies doing when this happened? Why doesn’t the government make any laws to hold the culprits accountable? Who is responsible for these crimes? How to understand the reason behind these crimes and how to address it?
This is the microcosm.
And of course, they are both connected as always. As everywhere.
A city is built on hierarchies like a grid garnished by institutions that cannot operate in isolation. Family, marriage, education, communal relationships, religion, government – it’s a chain of people, ideas, actions and reactions. Economic inequalities, in a country like India, has a key role in shaping all these components of the social fabric.
Imagine this: a child is born in a poorly managed household either economically or financially, the initial years of a child are ignored as is the preface of a book written by a local author. His emotional needs of safety, love and attention are never met. He grows up and goes to a school observing and absorbing infinite amount of behaviors. A number of times this schooling part gets missed as well. But when school does exist, the focus is never on developing the personality of that child. In fact, the school becomes a hub of shame, guilt, comparisons, pressure and an aimless competition. Then comes professional and practical life. The cycle goes on and on.
No answers to questions. No longing to ask.
No guidance about puberty, desires and sexuality.
No knowledge about how power and control come to display.
No inclination towards openness, conversations and understanding.
No relationships to hold on to and hence no healthy communities.
No resources to get better and no understanding of the need to get better.
No accountability of the perpetrators and no rehabilitation of the caught.
In a state of NOs, there is the reign of taboos, stigmas, poverty and systemic intolerance and oppression.
Now, you decide who to blame. And where to start if you feel like finding a solution.
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