The Grand Delusion Named 'Safety'

 

I am ashamed to say that I have not been following up with the Kolkata rape case. The reason is quite petty and selfish – I am too weak-hearted to read or hear any details about the victim. I have been reading many posts on the social media, condemning the dastardly crime and asking for justice. Yet I kept quiet, not wanting to get involved. But only because Nirbhaya has already broken me. So did Priyanka (from Hyderabad in 2019). I do not have stomach to read or hear about any more crimes.

Today, a friend sent a YouTube video wherein a doctor living near the hospital recounted the horrors that the hospital is facing. I kept listening until she came to the point where she started describing the victim’s condition. My finger automatically slid across the video to many minutes further. Because I can’t. I just can’t.

And to think that someone actually went through all of that.

Acts like this shake up our very belief in humanity. We should not even compare ourselves to animals, for they are far better. What sort of a world are our children growing up in?? Who is safe, and where? There are such crimes happening in schools, colleges, hospitals, work-places and most horrifying of all, at homes. Babies, children, boys, girls, adults, senior citizens – who is safe? Crime has achieved what we have been trying to achieve since a long time – it has stopped discriminating on the basis of gender, age, caste or creed.

How did a society, supposedly ‘evolved’, come to this??? How many times will we lose a Sakhi to monsters? What will it take for a woman to not bear the brunt of the worst side of humanity?

I keep thinking about how we can stop rape cases. It utterly fails me. Because a woman is not fighting just with the man hell bent on destroying her, she is fighting with the demon named lust that has overtaken him completely and has left no space for coherent thought. What stringent punishment will cause enough fear for the demon to back down? And of what use is any kind of law after the victim has died?? Will it bring her back to life?

Justice is not just punishing the criminals. It would be justice when there are no more rape cases.

I am utterly lost as to how we can achieve this state in the society. Can anyone think of a solution?

We say we are evolving, but are we? If man hasn’t learnt to rise above his baser urges and view woman as a living being and not just as an object to gratify himself and to be treated in whatever way he wants, how can we say that humankind has evolved? What will it take for a woman to get her due respect and rights? When will society view her beyond her physical traits and recognize her for the wonderful soul she is??

You can provide CCTV cameras inside offices and work places, or schools, colleges and hospitals. You can arrange for security at all those places. But what will stop the rape that happens within the four walls of a home? You can blame her for being out late night, but what about the rape that happens in broad daylight? You can blame her for being on her own, but what about the rape that happens when she is with a group? You can blame her for the dress she was wearing, but what about the one in the diaper who cannot even speak?? You can blame her for being with people she didn’t know, but what about the boyfriend/husband/family member who rapes her?

I have lot of questions. Can someone please answer them? Be quick to answer, for the fervor is high now. Protests are being held, candle-lit marches are being held, victim-shaming is happening and the victim also has got a new name as per the tradition that is usually followed and people are rattled and shaken to the core. But soon the fervor will die down. We all will go back to the grand delusion of ‘safety’ until another of our Sakhi loses her life brutally and reminds us that we women were never really safe.

We probably never will be.