Was Justice done?
Yesterday 4 people were sentenced to death for a rape that was committed in a bus in Delhi. Like a typical Agatha Christie novel people outside could never have known what happened.
The chances are in a crowd people behave with far greater bravery (?) than they ever would. Looking at the profile of the 5 people in the bus, it is doubtful whether these guys would have even spoken to her. However when they were drunk (perhaps), and fueled by the behavior of one or two of them, the others joined in. I refuse to call them animals -because no animal behaves in such a brutal fashion. Animals kill ONLY to eat. Never to blind, rape, maim, in revenge, ………NEVER.
Having said all this, does a death sentence help the society? I would think no. It looks more like revenge – you raped a woman brutally and if we hang you we will get the people’s votes. It helped that the accused were low end people without any financial or political backing, so hanging them was very useful for the powers that be.
The SOLUTION lies in going to each and every house and making sure that the WOMEN get treated better. First, to begin with, the women should treat other women with respect. Then the son will treat his sister better. The man should be forced to treat his MOTHER with respect. Then his sister-in-law, his own sister, his father’s sister…..only when all this is established will he treat his wife and then his daughter’s with respect.
More and more women should be recruited in the police – maybe in accounting, HR, software, administration, etc. – the sheer power of the uniform will keep the men at bay. More and more movies showing women in charge should be made and shown all over the place. Books, newspapers, plays, skits, all forms of communication should be used to spread the message.
Eve teasing, touching, making indecent remarks should be publicly punished. Boys should be asked to bring their mothers to the police station, and their mothers should be asked to sign a good behavior bond. Policewomen should be available in every place if a woman wants to lodge a complaint….
Doing all of the above is difficult, may be very difficult.
So we hang 4 guys and then pray and hope that there will be no more rapes in India.
Sadly, exactly when the learned judge was writing or dictating this judgement there must have been about 100 rapes around the country.
Imagine when a group of 5 men are drinking in a bar, and a nice looking woman enters the bar. What happens is rape. Subtly, that is all.
Pattu
I agree. Justice was not done. I read somewhere that each passing hour a women in India gets raped!
The solution is to teach men to respect women. Unfortunately ‘respect’ for women is grossly misunderstood by our society.
We can respect women only we learn to treat them as equals and individuals.
Unfortunately, I don’t see this happening anytime soon.
Btw a new form of ‘rape’ is on the rise. ‘Boyfriends’ posting pictures of women au naturel on the web.
Sambaran Mitra
Subra, currently the law of the nation recommends death penalty for certain behavior. In nirbhaya case, the law took its course and came to death penalty.
I feel that law taking its own course is required along with what you suggested for greater public awareness. There need not be any mutual exclusion between the two. Both should be done.
I believe nobody believes that rape/female-insecurity problem is solved by the judgment once and for all.
Coming to the question of whether death-penalty is correct or life-sentence, that is a separate debate with multiple pros and cons. I tilt in favor of death-penalty but I sometimes feel unsure.
Bull Bhai
In the present situation I think this judgement was most WANTED along with proper awareness as Said by SUBRA SIR.
Shinu
no voices against the erotic/vulgar movies, the television sops, red streets, the tapering dress culture…..
Sambaran Mitra
@Shinu,
You have touched upon a very important question. However, the answer is not simple at all.
I would like to know your opinion about how do you propose to ‘control’ the cause and effects of erotic-movies/porn/red-light-streets/short-dress-culture.
Sanjay Singhaniya
@Shinu,
All these things happen in US also. It is just that there is enough police force which is efficient as well.
Accused has to prove his innocence in US court as oppose to proving him guilty in Indian court.
So the solution lies in law and enforcement. Not in giving lecture of behaving decently and treating women with respect.
Sambaran Mitra
@Sanjay Singhaniya,
I agree that government should not recommend virtue-control or culture-control to stop rape and promote female-security. The only thing government can and should do is legal protection and efficient policing. Most of the developed western countries command my respect regarding what they have achieved in their society. I also feel thankful that my country (although a far cry from US), at least some of the urban pockets, is still better than a lot of regressive societies around the world.
HOWEVER, there needs to be a dialogue in the society about decency, code-of-conduct and respectful behaviour. This dialogue needs to happen strictly outside government zone/control.
To give an example, let us take the case of p0rn. Government should NOT control p0rn. However, there needs to be a reasoning/dialogue around the harmful effects of p0rn. Probably there needs to be a control, but that control has to come voluntarily. There needs to be a dialogue about whether p0rn causes rape/female-insecurity. I would recommend going through: http://theresurgence.com/2011/11/19/7-negative-effects-of-porn
Joel
First place to start is here ” The SOLUTION lies in going to each and every house and making sure that the WOMEN get treated better. First, to begin with, the women should treat other women with respect.”
Arhant
I would just like to reiterate a point that has been made time and again. More than 80% perpetrators of Rape or Sexual assault are known to the victim, they are either family or relatives or close friends.
It is of utmost importance that as a society we look inwards in our homes and change the way women/girl child is treated.
As subra sir said, we need to change the attitude in every house and of every person even if it means looking into our own house and inside our own self.
Abhijit
Agreed with the solution that you provide to improve thinking of the society towards Women.
Capital punishment to the 4 accused is still justifiable because this will give a strong message to the society that such brutal incidences would not be tolerated and you may loose life in such cases.
In fact, if they get anything less than the capital punishment, it will dangerously boost confidence of other such animals in the society to commit crimes.