By Dr.ArunMitra
The rape and murder of a young medico in R G Kar medical college in Kolkata has shaken not only the medical community but the people across sections of the society are outraged and are coming out on streets to demand stringent action against the culprits. They are unhappy over delay in the progress of investigations. The report that there was effort to destroy the evidence has further irked the people.
This is not the only case in the recent time as during the last ten days after the Kolkata case,there have been incidents of sexual violence in several other parts of the country. A minor girl from Punjab was raped in a bus in Dehradun in Uttarakhand only five days after the Kolkata case. As per the NCRB, about 90 girls are raped every day in India. The unreported data must be much higher as the poor people are silenced with some money. Many of them do not go to the police station because of lack of trust on the police, fear from the accused and stigma of having been raped.
Every time there is outrage over sexual violence on women, it lasts for a few days and then the life returns to normal. After some time, people forget the incident. But, for the victim (if she has survived) and the family if she has been killed, the incident haunts all through the life. Some cases are highlighted in the media and so they draw more attention, but sufferings of countless poor people in our country are not reported at all.
The question which has been hovering in our mind is that how to change the situation. How to ensure that every woman feels secure at the workplace, in the street, market or even at home?
Sexual violence involves several factors. The whole problem starts from very childhood when the male child is pampered and many times the female is destroyed even before birth. As a teen ager too, most people give preference to male child’s education. This develops a feeling of grandiosity among the boys. The feeling of masculinity and physical strength makes many men to look upon the females as inferior and take them for granted.
The patriarchal values which have been institutionalised since ages are not easy to be changed. There is strong resistance from the men to change these values. Even though it is the woman who gives birth to the baby, it is only a few years back that the name of the mother was entered in the school certificates. Despite this the women have excelled in every field. They form about 60%-70% of the doctors nowadays. They have not lacked behind men even in the manual labour which the men consider to be only their domain because of physical strength. Many men are not able to reconcile to the fact that they have more physical strength but the women perform what men can never do because of the biological differences.
There has been rapid erosion in the value system in the recent past. Religion, which used to be a guiding force for creating value system in the society has now turned into a commercial arena. Women are not allowed to pray in several places and this is true for all the religions. They are prohibited to enter in certain temples on frivolous grounds. Such mind set is not only anti women but it develops a feeling of antipathy towards all the vulnerable sections in the society.
The rise of crony capitalism in our country has led to mad race for money which has further added to this antipathy. Ironically the political structure now a days is controlled by these crony capitalists.
Political structure has a powerful role to play in such matters. There are several examples when criminal elements including the rapists and murderers have been propped by the political powers. How can then we expect the change to occur! When the victim is from other community or the so called low castes, bias is clearly visible even in investigations of the case. Government’s apathy towards the extreme sexual violence against women in Manipur speaks for itself. It is unfortunate that the Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi who always talks of ‘BetiBachaoBetiPadhao’ has not condemned the incidents even once what to talk of visiting the state to assuage the feelings of the people.
We need laws for stringent punishment to the perpetrators of violence. There is need to effectively ensure safety of women at the work place. A health worker has to work day and night, even under odd circumstances. So their safety requires immediate consideration. Already existing laws like forming sexual harassment committees should be ensured.
The civil society has to work united. Compartmentalised reactions to such incidents bear little fruits. We have to stand for each other, understand their issues and support them particularly the vulnerable and marginalised sections in the society.
It is very important that both the male and female child are treated equally. Boys should be told to respect their sisters, female cousins and other girls in the community. Any male child showing aggression should be controlled at the very beginning otherwise it could become his normal behaviour towards any person he thinks inferior to him.
The myth ‘that to attain moksha it is a requirement that the male child should light the pyre’ must be broken. Institution of marriage should be treated as meeting of two families and not domination of groom’s family over bride’s family.
It is all the more important that the society is sensitised to shed patriarchal mind set in all spheres right from home to governance, legislature, police and polity. Feudal mindset has to be rejected. For all this we need socio-political movements.
To instil confidence in the society particularly medical professionals as an immediate measure laws for their safety and prevention of violence against the health professionals must be enacted at the central government level. The government’s reluctance to do that is sending wrong signals.(IPA )
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