Kolkata, Hathras, Nirbhaya: Women Safety Matters, A Raksha Bandhan Reminder For Governments, Society | Homework

The male gaze, the male entitlement, and the male nonchalance that one can get away even with rape — 12 years after the horrific Nirbhaya case in Delhi, the brutal rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor in Kolkata shows nothing has changed for women at large in the country which reports nearly 96 rapes daily.

Most women and girls would have a story to tell – of an intentional brush in a bus or on the street, being followed till one’s school or college and back home, of being at the end of unwelcome stalking on social media, or worse of someone flashing in public.

Invariably, it is the female who is told at home and by well-wishers to change course, restrict her movement or even ignore such unwelcome conduct. All such instances often are a build-up and feature in the back-story of a rapist. In villages, many a time the girl’s character comes under question if she complains of such harassment.

From Hathras to Nirbhaya and now Kolkata, the story is erringly similar.

One thing that has however changed is that women are no longer prepared to remain quiet. The anger was seen in the case of Nirbhaya on the streets of Delhi, the anguish was visible on the sight of a young girl’s body being cremated hurriedly at midnight in Hathras, and the outrage poured out in Kolkata and elsewhere as thousands of women hit the streets.

This reflected in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s words from the Red Fort too on Independence Day – “As a society we should seriously dwell upon the atrocities being meted out to our mother, sisters and daughters. The outrage is visible in the nation and among citizens. I can feel this outrage”.

GOVERNMENTS MUST ACT

One aspect is that a crime has occurred, and another is how it was handled. The West Bengal government paints a sorry figure on both these counts — given the gruesome rape and murder happened inside the premises of a government hospital and a civic police volunteer is involved.

The Kolkata Police Commissioner slammed the media for being rather unkind to the police which arrested the main accused within 24 hours, just a few hours before the police failed to stop vandals from ransacking the emergency ward of the hospital.

The High Court castigated the state government for a “sorry state of affairs” and for “protecting” the College’s Principal, and immediately brought in the CBI for an investigation.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC), with a women CM and a record number of 14 women MPs in both houses of Parliament, is under fire as its women MPs were conspicuous by their silence initially and later said no politics should be done over such a ghastly crime. There are, however, enough instances of TMC’s women MPs targeting their political opponents when such crimes happened in other states.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was also forced to criticise the “local administration” in West Bengal for a ‘cover-up’, but another key opposition ally and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief, Akhilesh Yadav, saw no mistake on the part of Mamata Banerjee. The ambiguous stance of many other opposition leaders also left a lot to be desired when it came to taking a stand on women safety.

LAW IS STRICT, WE NEED NEW MORAL COMPASS

Incidentally, the focus of the Centre has been to bring tougher laws when it comes to sexual crimes against women — the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) did it in 2013 after the Nirbhaya case and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has brought in tighter laws since to enhance punishments.

A rape crime now carries a sentence of 10 years to life imprisonment, while a rape with a minor has a minimum 20-year sentence or life imprisonment. A death due to the rape can also send the accused to the gallows.

PM Modi from Red Fort this time implored the media to highlight when punishment is given to the rapists so that “a fear is created of the consequences”.

The law says charges must be submitted by police in a rape case within two months and a court must decide on the same within two months as well. About 757 fast-track courts in the country are trying to adhere to this deadline for speedy punishments in rape cases — latest date shows over two lakh cases were disposed by these courts till the end of 2023.

The government says this has offered some relief to rape victims by minimising trauma, increasing accountability, and enhancing victim’s access to justice.

The key, however, lies in the police adopting a ‘zero-tolerance’ for crimes like stalking or sexual harassment like groping or molestation, which often are a prelude to the offense of rape by an accused.

There is also an urgent need to stress on setting the moral compass right of a vast majority of men — either through education curriculum or a major movement.

As a father of a 13-year-old daughter, I would like to believe that things would change.