There is a little girl, around one and a half-years-old. She is lying on a hospital bed. She is traumatised, her beautiful dress torn apart with blood stains on it. She is not even able to speak with her sweet voice. Just by looking at the scratches on her body, you can tell how she must have struggled and the terrible pain she must have had to suffer. Just imagine: a one and a half-year-old girl struggling to set herself free from a group of men thirsty for her body.
In the past few months, one three and a half-year-old girl, another one and half-year-old girl, and a seven-year-old girl were raped in Delhi. All of them underwent critical operations. Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal protested in front of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s house. She claimed that the Home Minister had been assuring her for a long time but nothing had changed. After the brutal rape of a one and a half-year-old girl on November 13, she decided to stage the protest under overwhelming shock and grief.
“I have been working 24×7 since the day the seven-year-old girl was raped, I’m out in the streets of Delhi and haven’t gone home for the past 10 nights,” said Swati. But even after her sincere efforts, the system has not moved. Most media houses find these rapes not worth reporting. Even the public is not paying attention to these issues.
I wonder, if some of our countrymen are so sensitive that their sentiments get hurt just by fictional scenes from a movie, why don’t their sentiments get hurt when these little girls are raped in real life and their rapists roam free in the same society? If they are ready to cut the nose of an actress who is just doing her job, why don’t they have the guts to hold rapists accountable? If they can feel so much pain for a person whose proof of existence is dubious, then why is there such an apathy for rape survivors who are real people? It’s just showcasing a fake pride and culture in an attempt to divert the public from important issues.
What kind of culture and people does our country have that they cannot tolerate the release of a movie but can tolerate the rape of little girls?
While our leaders have time to act and ban a movie, they have neither the time, nor the will to take some strong action to save the lives of these girls who have to suffer terrible pain.
Swati also said, “Nobody goes to visit these victims. Their eyes are asking questions. If the system and public don’t respond on time the next time when a minor girl is raped, the blood will be on our hands.”
I can only wonder what kind of futures are in store for these girls. How are they going to cope in such a patriarchal and ignorant society?