Society Has To Change For Crimes Against Women To Stop
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-09-13 09:52:19
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
Sexual assault against women continues unabated in India, despite stringent laws and increased public awareness in the wake of the Nirbhaya case that shook the collective conscience of the nation. The brutality of the crime at Sakinaka in the busy Andheri area in Mumbai matched the one in the Nirbhaya case except for the fact that it was not a gang rape. The woman was raped and then a sharp object was inserted in her private parts causing grievous injury. She was brought dead to the hospital. The fellow pavement dweller accused of the crime has been arrested. In the same week, a national level kho kho player was found dead on the railway tracks in Bijnor in UP. The family alleged that she had been raped and killed. In yet another crime in neighbouring Chhattisgarh the same week, a woman was gang raped and murdered in Bemetara.
Statistics show that in 2019, more than 32000 rape cases were reported in India. That means an average of that 88 women were raped every day. This is a disturbing figure given the fact that although increased awareness about laws has caused a spurt in cases being reported, there are still many factors which prevent all rape cases from being reported to the authorities. And these are figures just for rapes. There are numerous other crimes against women, including molesting, sexual harassment, domestic violence, dowry related harassment and killing and revenge crimes like throwing acid that add to the final tally of heinous crimes being committed against women on a daily basis. In short, India is not a safe place for women.
There have been suggestions that the Mumbai police should restart the practice of beat policing to prevent crimes like the one that happened in Andheri. There is no doubt that better policing does prevent crimes, still the onus of preventing crimes against women is upon the society. As long as deep-rooted patriarchal thinking continues to give a long rope to men, women will find themselves at the receiving end of their lust, greed and desire to dominate. Society will have to give up the male-oriented code by which it swears for any real change to happen.
