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The Society Has A Culture Of Rape, And We Are Not Accepting It: Here”s How!
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By Nihal Parashar:
Let me generalise things to start the conversation and to understand the larger picture. We have a society which rapes at a rapid rate of a rape per 22 minutes, and it is the same society which goes down the street demanding death, castration and every possible barbarian punishments for the rapists, and celebrates death sentences by the court. It must be hard to comprehend. Well, a complex phenomenon cannot be comprehended in a simple sentence- we require complex sentences and few reality checks to understand.
I am not trying to blame each and every individual or trying to paint them all in the same colour. It simply disturbs me when everybody around me demands for a death sentence for every rape case, as if it is the highest punishment. How can it be a punishment when the culprit is not even present for the consequences! But that’s a different question altogether. What I object is to giving too much importance to the criminal and not to the survivor. This is one of the major problems we are facing in our part of the world and not even trying to tackle it. This shift in focus can do wonders, and may be critical in creating a better future.
The recent rape cases which were given high priority in Indian media have been quite sensational in nature. It seemed as if we have few jingoists as the Chief Editors of major news channels. The enthusiasm they showed in covering the judgement seemed as if this is the end of the culture of rape! But voila- here we are, with more news of rapes all around us.
The society has a culture of rape, and it is not accepting it. It is simply playing the blame game. It believes that a death sentence will end the problem. This is foolish to think, and sadly our judicial system is also promoting this thought. I do not know what must be done with the rapists. That is not a point of focus to me. What I am really concerned of, is if our society can accept the rape survivors as active members of the social functioning, can help in healing the wounds by not making an issue out of it and can simply act as a friend to the survivor. Sadly all this seems alien in near future. We need few changes in the approach we try to see things with. Rapists or assaulters must be seen as humans rather than demons. Making a demon out of a rapist or an assaulter simply alienates them from the society and creates an illusion of non-presence of the culture of rape from the society. This must be done away with.
The punishment is a problem. Death is not an end to the larger problems. Yes, it acts like Saridon when the body faces a headache. But headache is a symptom and not a disease. Avoiding symptoms invites serious problems in the future.
Let us face problems as they are and not try to take shortcuts!
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shubham gupta
i agree to NIHAL PARASHAR that death sentence will not lead to elemination of rape cases . but i wuld like to tell the people that why they always talk about to stop the rape cases why they dont tell the ways to stop the rape case .
Vaishali Jain
Death sentences are not the solution, that’s for sure.
It’s disturbing how the ones not in support of capital punishment are asked for a sure shot solution other than that. Just because I don’t know what an appropriate punishment would be, it should not mean I go supporting the end of the criminal.
bansi dhameja
Nihal Parashar ji I totally disagree to your statement quote’ The society has a culture of rape, and it is not accepting it ‘Unquote.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that may be every hour or a minute some crime is committed in our country. This does not mean that our society has a culture of crimes and we should ignore crimes.
In every society all over the world crimes are committed but the crimes cannot be allowed to be committed in any society.
First of all we have to decide whether RAPE IS A CRIME OR NOT. I feel everyone would agree that RAPE IS A CRIME. Once we accept this then some steps have to be taken to prevent people from committing this crime.
One of the well known methods of prevention of crime is awarding suitable punishment to deter people from committing crime. The quantum of punishment is a matter of debate but criminal cannot be allowed to go Scot free. There are situations where capital punishment is awarded and if rape is also considered to be a crime of that magnitude the rapist must face death sentence.
I PERSONALLY FEEL THERE SHOULD BE SEVER PUNISHMENT FOR ANY CRIME. HOW SEVER LET THE LAWMAKERS AND THE SOCIOLOGIST DECIDE.
Another in my opinion more important way of reducing crime is INCULCATING HIGH MORAL VALUES IN OF OUR SOCIETY.
To my total dismay no one talks about this which makes me think perhaps morality has nothing to do with crime. I put this question to every reader.
DO YOU THINK MORALITY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CRIME?
FRIENDS THINK AND THINK SERIOUSLY AS TO HOW CRIME CAN BE REDUCED AND THAT THE RAPES AS WELL.
IN MY HUMBLE OPINION WE MUST STRENGTHEN MORALITY AT EVERY LEVEL OF GOVERNANCE ALSOTHEN ONLY WE MAY HAVE A CRIME FREE SOCIETY.
Raj
@Nihal : I see you have directly picked up radical feminist talking points from western feminists. Have you critically thought about your rants?
Also have you realized that India’s reported rapes (per capita) are less than 1/15th of USA/UK and less than 1/30th of Sweden? So on what basis are you bashing India as far as rape is concerned?
There is no rape culture. Never hs rape been legal in India and it never will be. There are criminals out there and our law-order situation sucks, But that doesn’t make it a rape culture.