Nirbhaya : A crusade for fearless existence of women

“Mummy, I want to live!”, These words from Nirbhaya to her mother will echo long after she dies in the form of a public outcry for a more safe and equal society for women.

            Nirbhaya fought hard for her honour and for her life, despite heavy odds against her. If we let the incident slip on as just another rape and assault case and forget her as mere statistics, we would do grave injustice to the fighting spirit of that girl and all the mental trauma and physical suffering she had to undergo and the ultimate price of life she had to pay. Nirbhaya, by no choice of her own, has become the inspiring leader of this new India’s movement against this horrendous crime. She must not be treated as a symbol, but her spirit should live on in all of us and keep inspiring us to be brave, which does not mean ‘not fearing’, but rather acting bravely and with integrity despite feeling fearful.

I am sure names like Ruchika Girhotra and Priyadarshini Mattoo sound familiar; they have grabbed headlines for being victims of rape. But women are constantly subjected to groping, molestation, eve teasing, and varied degrees of verbal and physical abuse—in the bus, in crowded by-lanes, shopping malls, trains, almost everywhere. The Thomas Reuters Foundation survey says that India is the fourth-most dangerous place in the world for women to live.

Have you ever been whistled at while shopping? Have you ever been clicked on by a total stranger on a mobile camera? Or followed by someone in the dark streets? How many times were you groped in the public bus while the other passengers remained mute spectators? I am sure most of the women walking alone in empty streets turn every now and then to make sure that no one is following them. It is only after she reaches her home safely that she breathes easy. At home, her parents, husbands, and brothers are anxious for her safety and have prayers on their lips.

‘Eve-teasing’ is a euphemism for every conceivable form of sexual harassment of women that varies from whistling, catcalling, groping, blowing kisses, stalking, sexual gesturing, or unsolicited photography to molestation and even rape.

Crimes against women: Global and Indian perspectives

Yes, women are stalked, molested, and battered the world over. But, barring some barbaric places the world over, it isn’t a social custom for girls to be killed even before they’re born. The world over, they aren’t forbidden choices in work, love, or marriage by politically coddled khaps. The world over, they aren’t set ablaze with sickening regularity for not meeting dowry demands or failing to bear sons. Nor do most politicians, the world over, think it perfectly kosher to justify rape by blaming the victim.

Sexual crimes are committed across the world, but elsewhere they tend to be individual crimes committed in private circumstances. It’s only in India that gang rapes are uploaded as MMS clips or carried out in moving vehicles in metropolitan cities, suggesting collective impunity for the perpetrators.

Rape: The crime

The Oxford Dictionary defines rape as Rape is an act of gross brutality, motivated by the desire on the part of the male perpetrator(s) to debase and control; a woman by physically violating her.

The definition speaks nothing of the mental agony and emotional trauma that follow the act. Rape can make a woman lose her confidence and develop a deep-rooted fear of men. The physical wounds can be healed, but the mental trauma and fear remain.

Rape is the fastest-growing crime in the country today, and as many as 18 women are assaulted in some form or another every hour across India. Reported rape cases rose by nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011. 85 percent of rapes are not even reported out of shame or fear of reprisal. Even when they are, in 50 percent of cases, the police don’t file FIRs, and only 20% of those reported result in convictions. As for Dalits, no one so much as raises an eyebrow when they are raped to settle caste issues and local disputes.

Rape, molestation, and other such crimes know no age, social strata, or economic condition. There have been cases of molestation ranging from girls as young as six months to women over sixty years old. Rapes happen across social strata in India. Nobody is spared, neither the rich nor the poor. At times, these cases are hushed up in the name of family honour or out of fear of the perpetuator, who often happens to be of high position and influence or, in many cases, an acquaintance. Molestation by a total stranger can be humiliating, but molestation by a known person, or worse, by a family member, can shatter the personality. The person feels isolated and betrayed.

While the reasons for rape in villages and tribal areas can be attributed to caste, honour, family wars, and repressive attitudes, India’s big cities are also grappling with more women entering the public space, thanks to education or jobs and the influx of migrants from villages. The conflict between accepting women entering bars or dressing in non-traditional Indian clothing, making independent choices, and refusing male attention is all seen as threats and provocation in big cities in India.

Horrific state of women in India

 Yatra Narestu pujyantey ramantey tatra devata
Yatreta too na pujyantey sarva tatrafla kriya.

(Manusmriti 3-56)

This Sanskrit shloka means Gods make their abode in the household in which women are treated with respect. However, where they are not shown any respect, all ventures and undertakings end in smoke.

We Indians are hypocrites when it comes to women. We worship her in the forms of Durga, Saraswati, and Laksmi, but still treat her as a slave inside our homes and as an object of desire outside.

Women are the dalits of our patriarchal society. Like dalits, they continue to be targets of reviling and humiliation in the most bestial of forms, of which rape is only one example. The systemic and inbred debasement of women continues to prevail in our tech-savvy, 21st-century society, where being born a female is commonly considered to be a curse. In terms of nutrition, access to education, employment opportunities, inheritance rights, social standing, and political representation, women continue to be actively, often viciously, discriminated against to favour their male counterparts.

It all boils down to a lack of respect for the Nari. And it starts at home first. Where the birth of a daughter is often a cause for worry and that of a son, to celebrate. Where the male child is worshipped and every whim and fancy of his is fulfilled. Where the female child is piled with more chores than her brother, where she’s expected to put in her share of housework, study, and do sundry other duties. All this makes the impressionable minds of boys believe that the girls are at their bidding, including satiating their sexual appetite. Rape is the culmination of a deep-seated hostility against the female gender that is ingrained in our society. Rape is not only a sex crime; it is also a gender crime.

Social attitudes to rape

The victims of rape feel isolated and are often made to believe that they themselves are to blame for the ‘act’. Even though she is the victim of this brutal attack of rape, society points its finger at her and tells her, Your deplorable condition is the result of ‘you’ and ‘your behaviour’. It is always easier to say that a woman is responsible for everything bad that happens to her. Women are constantly made to feel that they are asking for ‘it’ by means of their ‘dress’ or behaviour, but no one ever asks to be humiliated and harassed. When a one-year-old girl is raped? What was her fault? Was she dressed ‘provocatively’? Did she ask for ‘it’?

The victim of sexual harassment is often silenced by her own family members out of fear and shame; the cases are seldom reported, and justice is never met. In a large number of cases, the victim herself does not come forward with her complaint, ashamed as she is of the unfriendly society she lives in. Instead of recognising her as a victim, society terms her as a ‘loose character.’

Even if a complaint is filed, the accused is often let go or released with minimal punishment. The trial lasts for years, and because the victim and his family would like to get over the tragedy quickly, they are forced to drop the charges. While the accused roam free with their heads held high, it is the victim who bears the brunt of society and feels ashamed. The victim has to live with the stigma and suspicious eyes of society all her life.

To further complicate matters, we have so-called representatives who proclaim that early marriage is the ‘solution’ to rape. It is often heard that women should not dress ‘provocatively’ or wear Western clothes, which conveys the message that they are ‘asking for it’.

Spiritual guru, Asaram Bapu, was reported to have said that the victim was to blame for her own assault because she could have stopped the attack if she had chanted God’s name and fallen at the feet of the attackers. Mohan Bhagwat, the head of the pro-Hindu RSS, said rapes are the result of women adopting Western lifestyles, as has happened in Indian cities. The so-called leaders of society dictate how women should dress, walk, talk, behave, and go to work. Some khaps in Haryana have blamed Chinese noodles for the increased libido of their men. And who can forget what Sunny Leone, herself a woman, said: “Rape is surprise sex”.

The system lets down the victim

Though Indian law provides for protections for women, certain local law enforcement personnel are reportedly negligent, downplay complaints, blame the victims for their clothing or imagination, and pressure victims to discourage them from registering legal complaints. There have also been cases of harassment and rape by the police themselves. Even in cases of registered legal complaints, a lack of follow-up inquiries and proper investigations results in poor prosecution, which often further discourages other victims.

Then when cases come to court, the defence lawyers ask the victim the most private of questions in the most intimidating manner. Funnily enough, many of the cases are held in public courts and not on camera. This is because the judges are not aware that they can declare that the trials in rape cases can be held in camera. In some cases, they also suggest that the raped and the rapist are united in wedlock.

The courts will have to get stringent—many still persuade the rapist to marry his victim—but there is an urgent need for another three-pronged effort. One is that investigating agencies will have to be sensitised on how to deal with such cases. Two, society at large will have to change its attitude toward victims and make the leap from judgmental censure to empathy. Finally, women themselves will have to fight their demons and come out in the open about their various abuses.

For a safer tomorrow, for a better tomorrow

“It is impossible to think about the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. It is impossible for a bird to fly on only one wing.”

-Swami Vivekananda

Better and more vigilant policing of streets and public transport, harsher punishments for the rapists, sensitization of the police force on how to deal with rape victims, more policewomen, the setting up of fast-track courts, clever use of technology like GPS and CCTVs, and other practical measures are obviously necessary and must be adopted with immediate effect to curb these heinous crimes.

We can make stringent laws. We can demand the death penalty for the culprits. We can blame the system. But until we, as a people, learn how to respect the other half of humanity, nothing will ever change. A lot of how, in the future, one-half of the population will treat the other half will depend on the lessons learned from parents and teachers.

If what happens to women on the roads of Delhi and Mumbai—and other cities, too—is to stop, the change will have to come first at home, from the family. To start with, the birth of the girl child should be celebrated rather than cursed. They should get equal treatment in terms of nutrition, education, and household chores. Boys, as they grow up, should be taught to respect their sisters.

Conclusion

       Nirbhaya‘s is the story of millions of Indian women, open to insults, subject to ambush, vulnerable to attack, and destined for demonization. She has become an icon and a national hero as the barbarism meted out to her has catalysed a national debate about atrocities against women and the mindset of seeing women as objects of pleasure. This paramedical student’s undeserved fate serves as a reminder that, after six decades of independence, the modern Indian woman is free to do simple things like meet a friend, walk on the street, and catch a bus at night, but only at her own risk.

         Nirbhaya, like Jessica Lall, has provided us another opportunity to both look within, and reform as a society, and to enforce strictly the laws of the land and get speedy justice for the victims and their families. The journey to a more just and equal society is long, but let’s start taking some steps, one at a time.

                        “Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”