Have you ever experienced an Earthquake? Even the thought of us getting caught in a calamity sends shivers down our spine and makes us wonder what pain and sorrow one must have gone through being a recipient of such heart wrenching catastrophe.
There are 2 types of catastrophes according to me: Natural and Un-Natural. We as homo sapiens, do not have much control over the natural disasters and may be the cause of one knowingly or unknowingly. But Un-natural disasters are caused by us humans intentionally!
One such human catastrophe that I am going to pen down here is “Rape”. We all apparently “feel” for the victim whenever we hear about it in News/Media/Print. We talk about it at Tea Stalls “Chai pe Charcha” with Jagatgurus or standing in the corridor of our offices sipping our coffee during a work break or watch endless TV debates judging on what’s right or wrong.
I intentionally emphasized “feel” above. Sit back for 2 minutes and think what Rape is and what happens to the victim during this un-natural catastrophe. Can you still feel it? I bet you can’t unless you have experienced it hands-on. No one can feel the pain and trauma that the victim has gone through and will go through his or her life after the dreading moment is over. Not just the victim, but the entire family has to go through the trauma.
We can go into all nitty-gritties on this topic but one article won’t be enough. So, I want to touch base on a couple of very sensitive events that have happened in Hyderabad and Unnao which has disturbed not just me but every citizen of our nation to the core.
It is not a question whether the perpetrators should be brought to book or hanged until death, using a fast track court! The real question is why do such demonic activities happen? No matter how much we push to punish the culprit, there seems to be an antidote to this fear of punishment in the minds of these sick/drug-addict people.
What Hyderabad police did by encountering such suspects was completely a page out of a wild wild west movie! And people also loved it because justice here is as timely as Indian Railways! But do you think by doing this that a rape anywhere in future will be prevented? I hardly think so. Reform must come from within an individual and not by some sort of shady encounter. But, can reform only be a solution to this grave issue?
According to me, education about sex is a must and start from early childhood for every boy and girl to understand, respect and care about their fellow human being. Society as a whole must change their stone-age mindset of men being superior to women and that the latter is just an object to be toyed around with. It all starts with mindset and a clear mindset is only possible when you are educated enough not just to sympathize but empathize with a fellow human.
I agree, the above solution is slow and will take decades if not years to implement but will have significant impact on the society and its progress in the long run for any country to prosper. But, the sooner, the better!
In the meantime, giving capital punishment for any crime, let alone a rape according to me is not yielding any significant changes to society. All systems are not perfect, and people get through the crevices or cracks in the system bypassing the capital punishment using the pyramid law system by appealing to higher courts and spending years in Jail. India, already has very high backlog when it comes to cases pending in courts where the rarest of the rare case of “Nirbhaya” takes more than seven years to provide justice using a so-called fast track court!
I do understand that law has to take its due course but doesn’t this kind of delay create a mindset of no fear or less fear among those psychopaths who do not fear to commit any heinous crimes with a mindset of getting away or spending a few years in prison. The system must cleanse and provide quick and efficient justice for cases especially dealing with rape and the type of punishment has to create a fear among the culprits where they are not allowed to die for a day but for a lifetime!
–From a Frustrated Indian!