The nation has again plunged into the streets with the same
vigour and anger, if not less, as it had in the beginning of the year gone but
for completely different reasons this time. Nation is outraged, angry,
embarrassed after the recent rape and death of the medical student in Delhi.
The political and judicial classes have reacted to the nation’s mood by taking
many steps like setting up of Fast Track Courts for the speedy trials of rape
cases, institutionalizing stricter punishments for the offenders, setting up
hotline for the needy etc. But, as the days have gone by we are still reading
about many other rape cases coming into light, many more victimized by the
dreadful, inhuman act. Many victims have even tried to commit suicide.
Here, there is a need to pause and have a re-look at what exactly
is going wrong and why the society is not kind to the fairer sex. TN has vowed
to give death sentence (or in some cases chemical castration) to the rape
offenders, so does this mean in coming year or so the rape cases will come down
regularly in TN (if not drastically)? The point, here, is not that there should
not be any strict punishment to the hideous crime committed. There should be,
but, the point is that whether this would suffice or bring in any significant
change? Such steps should be looked as short term implementations against the
crime. There should be an approach that will look at the cause of such
incidents rather than looking just at the effect. As Praveen Swami of The Hindu rightly notes in his article that there are many contexts ‘as possible keys to the
production of India’s urban-male dysfunction’.
Case Studies
A system where there will be a detailed case study of the
convicts of rape in the past will help in better understanding of the
socio-economic background of offenders. A psychiatric analysis of the convicts
to understand the psyche or mental condition may lead to clearer ideas in
understanding the contexts better. Once the case studies are done, deductions
can be made to understand what exactly is wrong with the male dominated society
of India. These studies will not solve the problem in a snap but it will
certainly provide the guiding light needed to walk towards the probable solution. Also
these studies should have some statutory or legal backing or else it will be
just another case study done by any NGO which never gets read, let alone,
getting governmental recognition and implementation. With many men believing that the victims of rape invite the crime on themselves showing them the mirror through these studies becomes important.
More visibility
Indian women are, by default, house-wives by profession, and
thus there are very less number of women visible in the workforce of the
country. The minority catches the eye of the people. In India, even now, a
women working in any domain is an eyebrow raising issue(except say in IT
industry but the workforce there is mainly single women, most of them who quit
jobs after marriage to become house-wives). The patriarch ego of men condemns
such presence. The possible solution to the problem can be to increase the
women workforce. Way forward in this could be implementation of existing legislation strictly or drawing more legislation for the upliftment of women esp. girl children from the shackles of male oppression. Quota for women
in Parliament might well be the first step in this direction.
The change of the hour is not quick, hasty, ad hoc decisions
but thoroughly thought, long term, ‘cause’ based decisions which will have long
lasting and permanent effect on the society for its betterment.
