For last 2 weeks media has been talking about the Rape victim and our young people protesting on the road have ensured that the issue is kept alive. All of them are asking for stringent laws, some even talking of death penalty for the six accused. Amongst all this, unfortunately the rape victim who had suffered brutal injuries has passed away.
From what I hear in media, it seems the whole Indian youth seems to have connected to that girl and feel sorry for her. However though I do feel sorry for the victim, I am not sure why the whole country is suddenly talking about this case in particular. Rapes have been happening in all parts of the country with victims and also the accused from all strata of the society. We have several politicians who are themselves accused of raping. Army personnel and police have been regularly been blamed for torturing and raping women living in sensitive parts of the country.
I do not have the solution for stopping rapes in the country, I do not know if stringent laws will ensure that sex starved men will think twice before raping somebody or I do not know if the problem is not in the laws but in the society itself which keeps discriminating women right from the time of her birth.
However my concern is that how is it that the youth of India are able to connect to this victim and not to normal poor people that they see dieing due to hunger or lack of shelter or due to curable diseases. Isnt it also brutal. Isnt these cases that we see more often in our day to day life?
There are hundreds of people begging, many of them children below age of 10, how is it that the youth can take to streets for this particular rape case and not do anything for such children. Whose responsibility is to provide food and shelter to these kids? If government should provide security and ensure safety of people going to late night movies and parties, isnt it also responsible for the safety and well being of this poor kids. How is it that the Indian youth cannot see these people? Have we filtered our sensitivity only for people of middle class and above.
Do the youth really think that the beggars on the street who hardly have any shelter are safe from such rapists? Forget rapists, what about climate. When we sit cozily inside this chilling winter, how is it that we cannot think about the people living on the streets? Why not hold government accountable for not providing shelter for such people?
What we have seen in past is that youth of India come to streets only on matter that concerns to them? Remember protests against caste reservation? Remember protests against corruption? And now this. Have youth of India taken to streets for farmer suicides? What about the various issues that tribals have been fighting for decades now and which has lead to become what the Prime minister of India calls as “The single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country.”
Does it mean that even youth of India are selfish which awaken only on issues concerning them. Then how can they blame politicians who also are selfish and hence concerned about issues that concern them which primarily is doing whatever it takes to be in power.
It is important for youth of India to be wide awake and being sensitive to happenings to other people to whom they can relate to but I hope they will also come forward for reasons that concern the people who are voiceless and to whom media pays little attention.
To conclude, I am sorry for the rape victim, but I am more sorry for people dieing due to hunger or curable diseases or due to lack of shelter.
