It's time to set an example

National shame

As a woman staying within a kilometer-and-a-half of the Mahipalpur flyover where the 23-year-old paramedical student and her male friend were stripped and thrown out of a bus, after the girl was gang-raped in it, for the first time I experience fear. As a career woman who regularly comes home late, I no longer feel safe in the National Capital.

Outrage and reactions from across the country, for yet another rape, are no longer consolation for one who has lived life on her terms - because those terms no longer exist. In the face of lawlessness and virtually zero conviction rate in rape cases, what remains is a primal fear which states that, ‘as a woman you are unsafe’. Nothing will come between you and a rapist – if he sets his mind to it.

Forget provocative dressing, forget taking precautions like being accompanied by a male friend or acquaintance, forget evening outings - drop everything and stay home. Perhaps that is the only answer that the authorities, government and cops have for countless women who live in this City.

Gaurav Kapur is right when he tweets: “Catch them, parade them on TV, beat them (up) in public. You think it’s extreme? When they act like animals they deserve to be treated like animals.” You think he’s speaking only against the rapists? The point is just as well made for inactive and interia-ridden politicians and lawmakers too.

Arjun Rampal’s comment validates a common woman’s anxiety: “New set of laws and more severe punishments are required for these kind of criminals. Rapists should be publicly flogged. No more tolerance.”

And Preity Zinta feels that, “Either there should be capital punishment for rapists or they should be castrated.” But are these reactions enough to wake up those in power whose daughters and sisters reside in the comfort of government bungalows and plush residences and move about in luxury cars surrounded by security men?

Apparently not. Unless stringent action is taken, as Pritish Nandy points out, “The way we respond to rape cases disgusts me. All we have to offer is clichés. What we need is exemplary and brutal punishment,” it is unlikely that rape will stop. Statistics abound and Arvind Kejriwal notes: “635 rapes registered in Delhi during 2012. Anyone punished so far? No! Doesn’t it encourage such crimes? Each rape case should be decided in one month.”

But given the pace at which trials are conducted, given the low rate of conviction for rapists and the government’s track record of creating stricter laws for rape, chances are that this case too shall become just another statistic. The only thing then that remains to be done is what Suhel Seth advises: “To hell with all the human right types... institute fast track courts and just hang rapists. Simple... our women can’t be unsafe all the time.”

Or else be prepared for comments like the one Poonam Kashyap, a 30-year old travel consultant faced when she approached  cops after realising that she was being tailed: “‘Madam aap apna route change kar lo.’ So we citizens are on our own to safeguard ourselves against such incidents.” All the best!