“And her family didn’t report the matter to the police for fear of social stigma.”
The following week, he had allegedly assaulted another girl. Her family too did not report the matter to the police. “He, however, kept making frequent visits to Delhi to target minor girls,” a police source said. This is an excerpt from today’s Hindustan Times news about Delhi’s serial rapist Sunil Rastogi.
Media is talking about it. We are talking about it. And that’s it? Our duty is over. Right? It is easy to see the news flashing on your television screens, pass your comments on the survivors, and twist your faces in disgrace for the culprits.
Dear Society, try to understand this. Find the gap. The rapist is the culprit; we know it. It is a fact; easy to grasp. But to understand it in more depth, let’s make a list of all the culprits: the rapist who commits the crime, their evil mind which motivates them and ‘we’ who give him the opportunity to do it again. Yes, we make our way to the list of culprits. Congrats to us! We are never ashamed of our crimes as we rarely realise that we have done any.
News about such cases is followed by news about the survivors’ parents not reporting the matter to the police. Parents don’t report it because the society will most likely twist its face in disgrace at that girl. Dear Parents, now you need to understand this. It is your duty as a member of this society to make us aware of any bad deed that takes birth in the shelter of your fear of social stigma. Don’t deny this.
The rapist is accused and blamed for his deeds. Nobody accuses the family. Why not accuse the society as well? The blood is on the hands of us all. Understand it. Feel it. We, as a society, are the real criminals.
Report it. Don’t let this happen with any other girl. You know the pain. No one can understand it as much as you can. Report it.
I know the society is changing. We are changing. Change is near. Please don’t take too much time to bring about change.
Change is near. Bring it on.
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