As I write this post, there is a heated discussion going on television and the digital space is berserk with controversy about the interview of one of the convicts of Nirbhaya's gang rape and murder for a documentary by a British film maker for BBC.
The sum and substance of the interview is a reflection of regressive mindset, flawed attitude, a harsh reality of a parochial mental outlook towards women that seep through India:
1. "A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy."
2. "You can’t clap with one hand – it takes two hands. A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night.
3. "A boy and a girl are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes."
4. "About 20 per cent of girls are good.
6. "The death penalty for a rapist will make things even more dangerous for girls. Earlier, they would rape and say, ‘Leave her, she won’t tell anyone.’ Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death.”
Abhorrent! To say the least, right?
Last week, a loud, satirical poster, titled, "A bad girl"("Ek buri ladki") went viral on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Derived from the aesthetics of old-school Indian Adarsh Balak posters, this one shows a sari-clad woman indulging in activities that are usually deemed unsuitable for her. So, there she is — pouting, smoking, drinking, riding a bike, raving in Goa, watching pornography, letching at boys and falling in love in a park, walking around with open hair, she cannot make proper rotis, eats too little or too much and above all, she has breasts!!
Needless to say why this satirical poster has received stardom on digital media!
The internet is a vast repository of images that not only fails to amuse us but also helps us have glimpse of what is going on in our society. Every single day, we read about inhuman acts of
sexual perversion, abuse, kidnapping, rape, incest, burning, acid attacks,
dowry deaths, and so many gruesome acts of oppression of women, across all
categories and class, that such news sound very "routine."
Ask any woman, how it
feels to be raped through eyes of sick men with deviant minds. Listen to their
pain and humiliation of being groped by some pervert at the crowded place. We
claim to honour and worship Goddess Shakti and respect her
personification in women. We take pride in "Indian culture" and our
"age old traditions" and fight for it when it is threatened. Let's do
the realty check.
None of the crimes I mentioned above,
really shame us! The truth of our reality is in female infanticides being devoured
by sewages from rural as well as global metro cities. Our reality
is charred bodies in dowry and tandoor deaths. Our reality is, painfully disturbing,
rotting stench of female foetuses and the hanged bodies of "honour
killings". This is our TRUE "culture" and the manner in which we
"honour" women.
Rapists don't belong to any particular city, caste or
community. This is a kind of breed is product of environment, that
treats women as commodity, to be used, abused and treat inhumanly without iota of any guilt or shame. Such mindset gets nurtured from very
formative years that deeply ingrain the message that men are superior to
women. I bemoan lack of will and vigilance that any
civilized society should display and be accountable for. It is sad that we lack
basic education in humanity and forget that education starts from home.
I am neither a feminist nor do I believe that all men are perverts. As a human being, every time I
read about oppression of women, or for that matter any human being, I lament
death of basic humanness that connects us all.
The excerpts from the interview of one of the convicts of Nirbhaya case are painfully shocking and while it might brew our blood, it is imperative to check if we are teaching our children right values.
