The death of the 23-year-old gangrape victim is a blot on the character of the nation. Her brave fight for nearly two weeks to regain a modicum of health and consciousness while battling the injuries caused by a brutal assault on her with iron rods after being gangraped has at least helped crystallise opinion against the treatment of women in India.
It is a sad commentary on modern India that it took a violent gangrape to awaken its conscience and prick its collective male ego.
The time to act on the issue of women’s rights is now. Words, however commiserative and empathetic of the victim, will not help. What is called for is clear and concise action in a fixed time frame on remedial measures that will help allay the fear in nearly half the population of the country who are potential victims of a male chauvinistic attitude that, sadly, is too deep-rooted to be eliminated without a conscious effort by males.
During the course of a long debate set off by one of the cruellest instances of gangrape, politicians have not exactly covered themselves in glory and leaders have not shown much sensitivity. On the contrary, politicians, cutting across party lines, displayed a peculiar propensity to put their foot in their mouth, be it the President’s son Abhijit, the Marxist Anisur Rehman or the home minister, Sushilkumar Shinde, himself.
The inertia of the government in dealing with the initial outbursts in the capital that snowballed into a unique people’s movement spurred by spontaneous anger, outrage and angst — and which owed nothing of its creation to any politician or national leader — only reinforced the perception in people that they were dealing with an arrogant government increasingly removed from the pulse of the public
sentiment.
While moving the victim to Singapore represented a last-ditch attempt to save the girl, the move was also symptomatic of the state of medical facilities in the country. How many people can afford to get the best possible treatment at a multi-transplant speciality hospital situated elsewhere? Should the country not have at least one super-speciality hospital in each metro with the best modern infrastructure?
The number of rapes recorded after December 16 is a clear sign that not even the fear of more stringent laws has changed the pattern of the carnal desire of man finding despicable outlets in sexual harassment or outright rape of women and children. As has been frequently pointed out, even men with rape cases pending against them sit in our legislatures. An immediate agenda for legislators must not only be to make rape a non-bailable offence but also make an attempt to rape an offence of equal magnitude. A register of sexual offenders and punishment for laxity in dealing with them should also be specified. A sensitive government would swing into action without delay.