TW: Caste-based atrocities, Mention of gangrape
Recently, we witnessed the brutal incident of the alleged gangrape of a 19-year-old Dalit woman; once again we let caste-based gender atrocities occur, and once again, humanity died.
The story is ridiculous and we are ashamed of ourselves, but this is not the first time that we are witnessing such an incident. It’s been years since we have been talking about rape against women, especially those from minority communities, but nothing has changed. The nation united and erupted during the 2012 Nirbhaya case, but has anything changed?
The Indian political system is cis-male-dominated and is one of the major reasons why no structural and political reforms work out in the favour of the oppressed. These male politicians indulge in dirty politics and talk about the number of rape cases in a different state, as if they are just numbers to throw around. Is this a competition going on? Do they even understand the sensitivity of rape?
Indian political system is biased towards upper-caste, upper-class, cis-gendered males and that’s why they treat women as a political asset. They think including the topic of ‘women empowerment’ in their political manifesto will make them successful in their political career.
Once again there’s public pressure and government has formed another special force to investigate the matter but what is new in that? These things have happened before, we all know how it ends, don’t we?
Situations will not change in this patriarchal society, things will only change unless we start treating women and other oppressed individuals as human beings. For this, we need women at leadership roles, women who are in politics and in creative fields. We need all the women to come together, leaving behind their political ideologies.
If we want to change this patriarchal society then all women have to join hands and speak up against rape and rape culture. It is time we unite against this patriarchal game of politics.