While the entire nation cheered over the execution of four men – Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh – who were hanged on 20th March 2020 at 5.30 AM at Delhi Tihar’s Jail, my soul is not permitting me to celebrate. I am not ready to commemorate this, because I am anguished and ashamed of the fact that our society is producing such individuals who are not humans.
This is not only about that 23-year-old medical student who came to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’, and this is also not only about those four individuals convicted for her heinous, blood-curling gang rape in a moving bus on that fateful cold, shivering night of December 16th, 2012 in Delhi.
Although, we can now proclaim that justice has prevailed, but that regressive mindset of treating her as a playful thing and objectifying her, that unthinkable and sadistic pleasure is dangerous for our society. We cannot imagine the immense trauma suffered by her in those hours of devastating darkness due to the animalistic instincts of those six individuals. Can we say that we have eradicated that perception after their execution? I will be happy if the answer is in affirmative but unfortunately, we all know, it is a resonating yes.
I am ashamed to live in a society where such criminals share the same air; where humans carry such brutal, barbaric and diabolic crimes. From pulling out her internal organs to reports suggesting bite marks observed on her face, lips, jaws, near the ear, on the right and left breast, left upper arm, right lower limb, right inner groin, right lower thigh, left thigh lateral, left lower anterior and genitals. These acts reveal the mental perversion and inconceivable brutality perpetrated by them. Yet, we live in a society which is apparently safe for women.
Let’s not read about equality and justice from the books. The internalised misogyny, objectification and disrespecting women has been normalised. A women’s honour, pride and self-esteem are crucial to her personal freedom.
Yet, I am choosing not to celebrate the execution because, according to the NCRB data, 4,15,786 rape cases were reported across India between 2001 and 2017. On average, 67 women were raped every day across the country during these 17 years, or, in other words, about three women were raped every hour. Public transport serves as the hotbed of constant objectification, staring, touching, groping, and making a woman question her choice of leaving the safe spaces of her house.
It’s time to ponder upon where we are heading and why are we becoming so inhuman and failing to give respect to women. It’s not the right to time to celebrate because women feel scared with men. Before talking about gender justice and equality we have to teach our children, our boys, our brothers and our men to give respect to women teach them how to treat women.