When it comes to anything and everything, we start pointing fingers at the Government and we start pointing fingers at the Prime Minister. What do we think is Governments’ responsibility? To enforce policy and to enforce law and order? No, that is something that Bureaucrats and Police is supposed to be doing. Government is Law Maker and needs to ensure that the Law is followed adequately and appropriately. I guess most of us would not align with the aspect, but that’s fine, differences are bound to be there and that’s good otherwise neither of us is going to learn something new.
Coming to the most talked about set of incidents, “Rape” in India, well, it certainly is the most condemnable act and when committed against minors, it is indeed a sin for which death is the only verdict. But then, would a death verdict be enough to clean the societal trend of rape? No, it is not because Rapes don’t occur just out of blue; they are committed by those who are mentally sick and do not know what respect means in the society. These are the set of individuals who are dealing with low Self Esteem and Inferiority Complex and to counter that, they commit that crime. Now, many out there would challenge my previous statement, but I would leave it to them to accept it or counter it. What I would focus on is the probable aspects that can be attributed as the cause of actual number of cases v/s reported number of cases.
The case is not just of India, rather is across the world that the Rapist is not sentenced by law as much as the victim is by the society and the media. What happens as the debate on rape by the traditional as well as social media is nothing but discussing the aspects of how the victim was traumatized, without even realizing that the discussion and mention of the rape as well as victims’ reference adds to the trauma of the victim.
The societal tendency of pointing fingers at the victim and accusing the lifestyle of the victim does nothing much but add to the trauma of victim. Do you really think that the lifestyle of a minor say a 2 year, 4 year or 6 year old would be something that would attract the perpetrator? Hell, No, it is the sick mentality of perpetrator, the way I mentioned earlier, is responsible for that crime.
Coming to the Police and the Court halls, there also, the cops and the lawyers don’t do the best to help the victim, but they carry on the impact of rape by seeking answers to some really lead questions; some actually go to the limit of seeking minute details of the incident and add to the trauma of the victim.
Points as discussed above do nothing but restrain the Rape victims to go out there and report the crime. More so, it boosts the morale of those perpetrators in many cases where the victim retracts after filing a report and the perpetrator making pun on the law by walking free.
What I feel is that these aspects as highlighted above would need let even the death penalty would not be able to put a restraint on the act of Rape. Until we as the society regroup and rework on the aspects of what is highlighted above, we never would be able to eradicate Rape as a crime. There can’t be an immediate solution to the Rape, but there certainly can be an antidote that would result in longer run rather than immediate case.
We should start from the first part of “Not Accepting” traumatization by Media, Police and Cops; rather we should work together to stand with the victim to not let that trauma extend beyond the incident. Additionally, as a society, we need to put pressure on Jury to NOT permit post rape marriage between the perpetrator and the victim; as after that incident of rape, self esteem of the victims goes so low that if they have to tie knot with the perpetrator, they would NEVER be able to grow out from the trauma. Moreover, what would be the opinion of Jury where a group rape is committed by 5 married men? Certainly, its time to change the society first before seeking Death Penalty for Rape.
