With the increasing number of rapes in India, it seems that there has been a breakdown of our judicial system, the failure of the government machinery and the collapse of humanity.
Though we have a large number of facilities in our country, women are not safe. Women are raped every day, and the sickening truth is that the number is ever-increasing. In recent times, the rape of an eight-year-old child has traumatized the nation. Everyone is suddenly fighting for safer spaces – the general public, the media, human rights activists, everyone. However, it brings no change.
That being said, I do feel that people are selective in their outrage. We only come to know about cases that are highlighted in the media. And the media only highlights cases that bring them TRPs.
Do you know that in Assam, since the Sarbananda Sonowal government took charge, at least 3,009 rape cases and 17,106 cases of violence against women have been registered? According to National Crime Records Bureau data, Assam has the second highest rate of crime against women in the country. Against the national average of 53.6%, Assam has registered a huge 131.3% increase in the crime rate against women.
The Shopian rape and murder case of Jammu and Kashmir, which occurred in June 2009, is still pending. In 1992, a violent and cold-blooded case of sexual exploitation in Ajmer, Rajasthan was revealed which involved 100s of school and college going girls. The paradox is that even after this, state court chose to decrease the life sentence of the accused to 10 years of custody. Great, isn’t it?
The Delhi gang-rape and murder case was one of the most vicious cases in the world, where four of the accused were hanged, and the young boy was sent to a correction home.
In Gurgaon, a 22-year-old Sikkim woman was returning home, when three men dragged her into a car and gang-raped her. In Haryana’s Rohtak area, a 20-year old woman was gang-raped and killed by her ex-lover and a friend. The guy later crushed her face with a brick. Her food pipe was missing, and numerous sharp objects had been inserted in her private parts. Just imagine.
In Haryana, a 10-year-old girl was found to be pregnant after being frequently raped by her stepfather. In Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar area, a 21-month-old baby girl was raped by a 40-year-old man from her neighbourhood. A 24-year-old man in Varanasi raped a five-year-old girl. In Ludhiana, a woman drugged her 16-year-old daughter so that her two other friends could rape her.
There are many more cases that have not received any kind of coverage by the national media. Why so? Has the rape culture become strengthened by its political and media agenda?
Moreover, after so much agitation, our government is still silent and not taking any action against the rapists. Why does our country not have any hard and fast rules regarding the rape cases? Political parties are busy in blaming each other, but women in India are suffering badly. Modiji, what happened to your ‘beti bachao’? These are questions which need to be answered.