In wake
of massive protests over the gang rape in Delhi, Dr. ManMohan Singh in
his statement told the nation that the govt is taking strong steps to make it
safer for women and children in India. Quite paradoxically, though the
speech was supposed to instill some kind of fear in the minds of maniacs who
commit such crimes, it was actually the PM who looked more scared while
assuring the nation. Or as Reuters put it fittingly,"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered an anguished and brief reaction over Christmas,
in which he sounded like a man who felt every one of his eight years in office
and 80 years of life...".
She finally succumbed to her injuries...leaving India...Angered..Ashamed...
And not without reason. The people who are supposed to be in charge of things just seem unruffled by the protests. Systemic failure is just routine to them. And thus, people's frustration at things not being right is palpable. But...Angered & Ashamed...we have been earlier as well, atleast on two occasions - The first one against 27% reservation for the OBCs in institutes of higher education and the second one was the anti-corruption campaign. While the first one was stifled by an equally stupid solution as was the proposal itself, the second one also has failed to yield any results...yet.
As a response to the current outrage, the govt has promised fast track courts & daily hearings, have set up a committee to give suggestions on how to make laws more stringent, probably incorporating a death penalty as well. That was pretty much what was being demanded by the protestors as well. How I wish stricter laws was a panacea for every evil in the society.
We can
set up fast track courts but where do we get the judges to pronounce the
verdict? Who nabs the culprits? And just because people's anger had reached a
tipping point on increasing number of rape cases, doesn't mean that they are
less bothered about other crimes. What happens to the existing backlog
of other cases? What about police reforms? What about judicial reforms? Just
see the damning figures below:
- There
are 30 million cases pending across numerous courts in India, which going
by the current rate may take 350-400 years to be resolved. Even The
Hon. Supreme Court of India had a backlog of approx. 62000 cases as
of May 2012.
- There
are only 11 judges per million population against the recommended norm of
50.
- The
number of police stations not having a telephone facility were 307 as of
01.01.2008 which increased to 350 as of 01.01.2011. The number of
police stations not having wireless sets was 107 as on 01.10.2008 and as
of 01.01.2011 as well. And surprise..surprise...most of the police
stations without telephones were not in Naxal affected areas or areas with
difficult terrain but in Punjab and UP. Add to it the telephones that are
actually working. ( As an example: 50% of the police stations in Lucknow
don't have working telephones. Read it here: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/291351/half-lucknows-police-stations-have.html ).
- "The
actual availability of policement gets further reduced owing to vacancies
running upto 24.85% as on 1.1.2011." This I quote
from official figures from Bureau of Police Research & Development.
No, I'm
not saying that strict laws don't do any good. They definitely act
as deterrents But by merely asking for stricter laws we are
trying to cure the symptoms without identifying the cause. The malaise runs deeper. And that malaise is a deeply
disconnected current political class, disconnected from masses, disconnected
from real issues, disconnected from rest of the world. These are
the people who oppose meritocracy because they have none; these are the people
who oppose equality because they flourish in its absence;these are the people
who promote nepotism because they themselves are a product of it (There are of
course exceptions but just so very few). As a result a strange impotence has set in the system. In
each of three mobilizations, there was a tepid response by the political class;
a total lack of intelligent solutions and a remorseless, blatant display of
power on the innocents. This further sets on to prove that the existing
set of politicians is just not cut out to take any sort of accountability for
any of the ills that concern people the most.
The buck, therefore,stops with us. We have been angered; we have been ashamed; perhaps we should Act now! We need to be more participative in running of this country and not only through voting but also by also by looking at politics as a career; careers beyond engineering, sciences and commerce; careers in judiciary, police services, with NGOs, as activists, as journalists, careers in rural upliftment. We also need to think of this change as an evolution as well- an evolution of sensibilities, evolution of attitudes, evolution of outlook. Why's that " Higher education and income levels among families correspond paradoxically to greater female infant deaths" ( Read more about it here: http://www.abhishek-mahajan.com/2011/07/rich-educated-yet-primitive.html). Let's raise our voices in our homes. Let's stand up against our fathers, brothers, uncles, anyone who doesn't give the respect the women of our house deserve. Let's oppose any behavior that reeks of deep-rooted patriarchal and parochial mindset. Let's not encourage the weird set of questions or the side-profile and full profile shots asked by prospective in-laws. Let's boycott the fairness creams. Let no one question a single woman or a single mother. Let no parents tell their daughter, " Yeh to mere bete jaisi hai". Let no one tell them, "Dhang ke kapde pehno".
Let's think and Act now; lest we forget what happened on 16th
December 2012.
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