Respect A Girl!

Dr. Bhavneet Kaur
While nationwide candle marches against the rape continue to make headlines, crimes against women and the horrors faced by women and children in India keep happening. Not a day passes when unspeakable crimes like rape, gang-rape, harassment, butchering of the victims are not reported from various cities and villages. Waking up to the news of rapes, torture, ill-treatment of women have become almost a daily occurrence that one may not even find difficulty in locating the reports of such cases in the newspapers. Not to forget that there are many instances of crime against women that remains unreported as the victims did not dare to speak up or lodge complaint with the police fearing social ostracism. It is a shame that irrespective of their social or geographical standing, women are still subjected to eve-teasing, physical, emotional and sexual harassment and abuse every day.
India was dubbed as the fourth most dangerous place for women in the world according to a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters’ Trustlaw Women in 2011. The country was placed after Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan, as cases like female foeticide, infanticide and human trafficking are still prevelant. Unfortunately, even in the year 2013 there seems to be no safety for women of any age group in India. Amid empty talk of ’empowerment of women’-rapes have become a routine affair. Over the last few months cases of rapes and assault have made it to the headlines with alarming frequency and we should now no longer remain passive to this horrifying reality.
Women are getting raped or molested every single day in the country. It is a pain to hear that trying to justify the crime against women in society, some blame it on the growing western culture and some blame it on the dresses of girls. Ironically, those who say so they are ignorant to the fact that the beasts doing such crimes don’t even spare an infant or an old lady. If that was the case then gang-rapes would not have been prevalent in villages and with elderly women or infants. But the statistics show it all -none is spared in front of the monsters, no relation, no age and no decency. So what are we trying to prove by framing such excuses? Let us not ignore the basic fact that the respect for women comes out only from a healthy mind.
It is the mind of the men as well as women that have to be nurtured in the proper and healthy way so that they are able to respect the female gender. We must not cover such crimes by simply trying to find faults with the girls but should rather know that an unhealthy polluted mind of the criminal shall always see what he wishes to see in a female.
Although crime against women has been highlighted recently, it has its roots going back to centuries. The systemic brutality against the girl-child has, over a period, led to an imbalance in the sex ratio. The insecurity relating to girl-child vis-à-vis a male one is further reinforced by moth-eaten traditions and beliefs. The cumulative outcome is that India has one of the largest incidents of female foeticide. The country has the dubious distinction of having one of the biggest girl-child prostitution in the world. In the list of annual abducted children (estimated to be around 70,000 each year) girl children are the majority.
Crime against women and girl child is sadly prevalent in the society not only because of the men but also because some women support such activities. Physical and emotional abuse is often seen inside the boundaries of the so called safe homes. It isn’t uncommon to see that if a drunken husband comes home and thrashes his wife then often the mother-in-law would cover up her son’s activities blaming that the wife must be surely at fault. If a brother slaps his sister again the mother would try to protect her son and start finding faults with in daughter. So basically awareness regarding respecting women has to start from our respective homes and it is high time when both men as well as women have to learn to respect women – the race which is called the mother of all.
Although pro-active steps from Government, Human Rights Organizations and women organizations to bring a visible major policy shift in respect of administration of justice, law and order and change in the functioning of the system so that women are safe in this society is the need of the hour, but the fact remains that to eradicate it totally we must stop playing blame games and should rather own the responsibility to eliminate this evil. Horrendous crime in the form of physical, emotional and sexual abuse will keep on happening till the basic of teaching the respect of women is not started from home.
Education regarding respecting women should be initiated right from our doorsteps to make any desirable change in the attitudes of the coming generation because who knows that there may be little eyes in our homes watching silently whatever, we do so that he can enact the same or perhaps even severe with other females as he grows. So carefully watch out your language and actions ladies and gentlemen. Respect your mothers, wives, sisters, friends and the entire female race and try to make this planet a safer place for us and our young ones to live!

Follow our WhatsApp channel