All 4 charged in Hyderabad vet rape case killed in a police encounter! Ok, so I woke up to this news today, and I wasn’t confident about how to act in response. Just the day before, I mean yesterday, I read – “Unnao rape case victim walked over a km with 90% burns to seek help, call police.” While the entire nation is celebrating what seems to be a Bollywood movie scene in the Hyderabad murder case, the victim of Unnao is struggling with 90% burns and the doctor said there is a little chance of her survival.
Let me share with you all some news, that happened in the same week:
- In Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, a woman was gang-raped by five men on her way home from grocery shopping, on Thursday.
- A body of a 20-year-old was found in the bushes in Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu by shepherds on 26th November.
- An 11-year-old girl was kidnapped and raped by an auto-rickshaw driver in Punjab on 29th November.
- A 14-year-old girl was raped by two men near Navlakhi Compound. She was out with a male friend who is also a teenager. The perpetrators posed as policemen.
- At a brick kiln near Ranchi’s high-security region, a 25-year-old law student was abducted and gang-raped by 12 men at gunpoint.
Shocked? Well, I am not, for the reason that rape is the fourth most widespread crime against women in India. (Source: National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). And I live in a country, where sexual subjugation, gender inequality, lack of sexual autonomy, poor communal priorities, high population with low education, and the way people think, are the reasons behind the crimes against women.
I think, we, as a society, are conscientious somewhere. Just open your eyes and see what our uncles and aunties think about an independent woman – independent in every way!
There is a lot of rage existing in our country, more or less everywhere in India. In many roads or colonies, you will observe a group of aged people sitting together, with a cup of chai and talking about (rather I can say passing their judgment) on the new generation, especially girls.
If they see a girl is holding her boyfriend’s hand, they straight away start commenting on her character and so on. But you will never see any one of them saying anything, to those boys, who commonly park their bikes on a corner of the road, and eve tease girls passing by.
Well, what can you expect from a country where a person below 18 years is tried as a minor for rape? Marital rape is another monstrous crime which takes place in our country, and it’s legal!
As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, “as many as 32,559 rapes were reported in India in 2017 and the accused were known to the victims in 93.1% of the cases who are “family friends”, employers, neighbours or other known persons.”
Just to make things more clear, let me share something with you all. More than 133,000 rape cases are pending in India, that includes 2012 Delhi gang rape, and reporting of such cases has climbed to 60% in 2016, with child rape accounting for about 40%.
Was The Hyderabad Encounter Justified?
Now, coming to what was done by the Hyderabad Police, that raised a number of questions among the people. Some people welcomed the police’s actions while others were not in favour. However, in my opinion, whatever has been done, is not justice, not in the world’s largest democracy, not in terms of law and order. But it’s not that I am not happy.
I say this because justice is supposed to be equal for all. What about the BJP MLA from UP who was accused of rape, what about Nirbhaya’s case, the Kathua case and what about all the other cases which should get justice? Those cases are pending because of the involvement of some powerful political personalities; and if you think sensibly, then you will realise that it’s nothing but an eyewash.
As a nation, as the largest democracy, we are unsuccessful in protecting our own daughters and it’s not like only women are the victims, sometimes men are as well. India is in such a phase, at present, where the essential fundamental rights are under threat. Be it education, religion, employment, or economy; the alarming situation is everywhere. But we hardly see our government taking any steps to make a better India.