Reading news from India, last few weeks was a real pain. It was embarrassing to read that Delhi has witnessed as many as 25 cases of rape and 42 cases of molestation. Are we still living in a modern India? How modern are we? Every day I can see faces of new monsters. We are still growing economically in single digits but the violence against women is growing consistently in double digits. National Crime Records Bureau reveals a very bleak picture. Only inflation can catch with this tremendous performance!!!
It’s the insensitivity of the general public worries the most. Some time back there was news about a woman in prison. Her crime? She was molested by a politician from the ruling party!!! I thought the law worked in the reverse fashion. Few days ago a lady was maimed for resisting the attack on her dignity. I thought such things only happen only during war (http://zoomview.blogspot.com/2008/08/dark-story-of-war-mass-rape.html). But now I realize for many its war every day. They have to fight each and every step they take outside their homes. There is no guarantee that they will reach back safely. Why can’t our law enforcement agencies give adequate protection in some of the vulnerable areas? There are few areas in Delhi from where such heinous crimes were reported many times but even now we cannot find even a single police check post or even a single policeman doing the rounds.
Most of the cases the victim were alone but it seems that now it doesn’t make any difference. Few weeks back, a gruesome incident was reported from Kerala. A young lady was thrown out of a running train compartment; molested and murdered. Few people who saw this crime didn’t pull the chain to stop the train. Only because it was a night train and they were getting late, they wanted to reach home as early as possible!!! How can we behave like this? Don’t we have any moral standards left with us? Don’t we have any obligations to the society we live in? I wouldn’t mind getting late even by a day (or more) if I could save a life. Will we react in the same cold manner if our daughter, sister or any relative were under attack?
For many of us such incidents has become a routine. We (including me :( ) live in continuous denial. We believe that such things happen only in far lands & we are safe. Most of days, I am in my own world. A typical day begins with thoughts of bits & bytes, bugs, performance etc. Every day I drive to office and come back in the same manner. Given an option I would spend all my time with computers, my books, music and such stuff. Just like all others I am also busy. But with such silly excuses am I not hiding from the actual society. Some will say that we pay tax (this year I paid a very bug amount :( ) ; it is the duty of the police and government to protect and act against such crimes. Surely I agree with this but paying tax alone won’t help us. We need to raise our voice, take a break from our schedules to make this place safe for our sisters.
Am I an aberration? Am I the only person who thinks like this? Certainly not, there should be thousands of good guys thinking the same way. It doesn’t matter who the victim is, even if they are stranger, as a social being it’s our fundamental duty to protect other lives around us. Today if we don’t react against such crimes then day is not far when these criminals, empowered by our silence, will attack our sisters openly within our own house in front of our eyes (already many such incidents have happened). At that time there will not be a single soul to help us. So please act next time. Even if you get late by few hours it’s worth the effort.
My dear sisters not all of us are criminals there are many good people around. Keep yourself safe. Few days back, one of my friend, whom I like a lot, informed that she was supposed to travel outside India for an official trip. Naturally I was worried a lot about her safety. She may already know a lot of self-defensive techniques even martial arts (Next time I will surely suggest martial arts) but still the world is not so safe. In United States & other such places pepper sprays are very popular. I didn’t hear much talk about sprays in India. But it is not so difficult to get pepper sprays in India.
You can get the spray from the following sites in India.
Looking at the situation here in our places, keeping such sprays handy is not such a bad idea.
Let’s act and make this a better place to live.
It’s the insensitivity of the general public worries the most. Some time back there was news about a woman in prison. Her crime? She was molested by a politician from the ruling party!!! I thought the law worked in the reverse fashion. Few days ago a lady was maimed for resisting the attack on her dignity. I thought such things only happen only during war (http://zoomview.blogspot.com/2008/08/dark-story-of-war-mass-rape.html). But now I realize for many its war every day. They have to fight each and every step they take outside their homes. There is no guarantee that they will reach back safely. Why can’t our law enforcement agencies give adequate protection in some of the vulnerable areas? There are few areas in Delhi from where such heinous crimes were reported many times but even now we cannot find even a single police check post or even a single policeman doing the rounds.
Most of the cases the victim were alone but it seems that now it doesn’t make any difference. Few weeks back, a gruesome incident was reported from Kerala. A young lady was thrown out of a running train compartment; molested and murdered. Few people who saw this crime didn’t pull the chain to stop the train. Only because it was a night train and they were getting late, they wanted to reach home as early as possible!!! How can we behave like this? Don’t we have any moral standards left with us? Don’t we have any obligations to the society we live in? I wouldn’t mind getting late even by a day (or more) if I could save a life. Will we react in the same cold manner if our daughter, sister or any relative were under attack?
For many of us such incidents has become a routine. We (including me :( ) live in continuous denial. We believe that such things happen only in far lands & we are safe. Most of days, I am in my own world. A typical day begins with thoughts of bits & bytes, bugs, performance etc. Every day I drive to office and come back in the same manner. Given an option I would spend all my time with computers, my books, music and such stuff. Just like all others I am also busy. But with such silly excuses am I not hiding from the actual society. Some will say that we pay tax (this year I paid a very bug amount :( ) ; it is the duty of the police and government to protect and act against such crimes. Surely I agree with this but paying tax alone won’t help us. We need to raise our voice, take a break from our schedules to make this place safe for our sisters.
Am I an aberration? Am I the only person who thinks like this? Certainly not, there should be thousands of good guys thinking the same way. It doesn’t matter who the victim is, even if they are stranger, as a social being it’s our fundamental duty to protect other lives around us. Today if we don’t react against such crimes then day is not far when these criminals, empowered by our silence, will attack our sisters openly within our own house in front of our eyes (already many such incidents have happened). At that time there will not be a single soul to help us. So please act next time. Even if you get late by few hours it’s worth the effort.
My dear sisters not all of us are criminals there are many good people around. Keep yourself safe. Few days back, one of my friend, whom I like a lot, informed that she was supposed to travel outside India for an official trip. Naturally I was worried a lot about her safety. She may already know a lot of self-defensive techniques even martial arts (Next time I will surely suggest martial arts) but still the world is not so safe. In United States & other such places pepper sprays are very popular. I didn’t hear much talk about sprays in India. But it is not so difficult to get pepper sprays in India.
- http://www.chilliguard.com/
- http://www.knockoutspray.com/product%20range.htm
- http://studenttravel.about.com/od/womenstudenttravelers/a/pepperspray.htm
- http://www.ehow.com/pepper-spray-laws/
Looking at the situation here in our places, keeping such sprays handy is not such a bad idea.
Let’s act and make this a better place to live.
