Delhi is seething with anger. Up in arms against an inefficient, detached administration, the youth of Delhi is out on the streets exhibiting anguish, disillusionment and a short fuse. Last week’s gang rape of a 23 year old physiotherapy student in a moving bus in the very heart of Delhi has touched too many raw nerves. Delhi for long has had the ignominy of being one of India’s most unsafe cities for women. Every Delhi woman would admit to having experienced some or other form of sexual harassment on its streets, its public transport, its markets and malls, its corridors of power and its burgeoning corporate centres. Incidents of rape, molestation and sodomy are de rigeur. It is one of those bitter truths that most women in Delhi have learnt to live with over the years.
This rape however was one of those rarest of rare cases, the gory details of which have shattered the average Indian woman’s sense of wellbeing and confidence in the administration. People are genuinely terrorised and concerned about the safety of women in Delhi, which after all is a microcosm of India. Needless to say if this is the state of affairs in Delhi-where 600 rape cases have been reported in last one year- one can imagine what would be the plight of women in the interiors of India. There are many other forms of assaults on women in India- of Dalit women by men from socially higher communities, for personal enmity, for ‘teaching a lesson’, by khap dictats, marital violence, in riots, on unsuspecting patients, school girls and mentally unstable women in institutions and orphanages, date rapes, by men in uniform in insurgency areas, by policemen on rape victims! Despicable and punishable as all these forms of violence are, if the Govt does not show conclusive, swift action on this rape that happened in perfectly normal, seemingly safe, urban setting in the heart of its capital, it would be a startling example of the overall emotional detachment of the Govt with its people’s concerns.
The 6 men arrested for this heinous crime range from age 17 to 35, hailing from the fringe elements of this centre of power, wealth and decadence. Perhaps that is why it has got unequivocal condemnation. It is a case that has single-handedly brought to the fore so many interlinked concerns-the quality and seriousness of policing, inadequate and unchecked public transport, ineffective picketing, drunk driving, unstructured employment of our youth, the schism between a backward, lagging behind ‘Bharat’ and an ‘India’ growing in leaps and bounds, the exodus of large swathes of poor youth from villages to urban areas where they encounter a life of rejection and non-inclusiveness that throws them into the vicious cycle of petty crimes. India today seems like a time bomb ticking away to self destruction.
More annoying than the crime has been the response of the Govt to deal with it. Here we have multiple figures of authority dodging the blame on each other. The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi who was on a holiday returned only when things took a serious turn. The Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit has put the blame on the Police, even hinting at sacking of the Police Commissioner of Delhi, Neeraj Kumar. The Chief Secretary and the Police Commissioner in a joint press conference shocked everybody by patting each other on the back for the administration’s ‘outstanding work’. In all of this chaos, the President and PM were not seen or heard for a week.
The father of a 21 year old who was one of the many protesters collected at India Gate, which is being called India’s Tehrir Square, said, “As usual PM Manmohan Singh continued to remain on mute mode this turbulent Sunday while our Children were being tear-gassed and lathi-charged for a peaceful protest.” What happened to the 23 yr old that night in Delhi was not a stray incident but a result of years of apathy of Indian society and its offices of law and order towards violence against women.
30% of Delhi Police is deployed for VIP security, there is 1 Police officer for 700 persons whereas there is 1 for every 3 politicians. In handling the delicate case, Delhi Police used excessive force-tear gas shells, water cannons, lathi charge, instigating the silent protestors into chaos and retaliation. There was a marked shortage of women cops to manage the hordes of many a modern day Durga, Kali and Chandi out on the streets, fighting valiantly, unleashing years of indignant fury and resentment at the blind eye meted out to women’s issues in our country. The aspirational value of Indian woman today goads her to take long strides into the 21st century storming many bastions, but a crippled political system and administration have failed her terribly. What is indeed ironic is the relatively high number of women politicians in important positions in India who have continued to make regressive statements often advising women to curb their ways and be responsible for their own safety.
No surprise that almost every political party in India gives tickets to people with criminal backgrounds including those who have committed crimes against women. It is believed that 260 MLAs and MPs in India have charges of sexual assault against them including 20 rapes!
While the number of rapes in India have continued to increase at an alarming rate, the conviction rate has dropped from 47% to 26% in the last few years. It has been 7 years that this Govt has been trying to carve out an effective sexual assault law, despite the rampant cases all around. There have been far too many acquittals of high profile cases where the perpetrators of crime holding important posts and connections have been allowed to go scot-free, often drawing Govt pensions, given medals and promoted to better positions, setting examples and motivation for total anarchy percolating down to all sections of society.
There is talk of fast track courts, death penalty for the culprits. Somewhere the problem has to be tackled at a very holistic level, engaging with and talking to such criminals and understanding what motivates them into such heinous acts. We all have to look into the degradation of media, films, advertisements that go a long way in objectifying women. We need to rethink running all our mediums of art, entertainment and broadcast as purely capitalist centres of revenue. We have to sensitise our sons (and daughters), students and organisations to gender issues.
The PM’s address was too little, too late and further morphed into an absurd ‘Theek Hai’ joke. The ring of mystery around a Delhi police constable’s death during the protests gives the impression that for our administration, correct information and not crime is the enemy. Can we ever hope to fight crime with this attitude?
The greatest reality that the Indian establishment needs to wake up to is, that a bold new generation brought up on instant messaging and real time solutions wants real time communication and real time answers. They will not be calmed and shirked away by hollow platitudes and five year plans that never see the light of day. They want pre-emptive action, effective deterrence and swift retribution.
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