January 4, 2013
She is dead.
The 23-year-old girl who was raped by six men in a moving bus in Delhi for about 40 minutes and dumped after being tortured on December 16 died from multiple organ failure after battling for life for 12 days. If you were following her medical updates, within the second day with septicemia spreading across her intestines and bowels you didn’t need to be a prophet to either foresee the consequence or the eye wash intention of the Indian government to cart her off to Singapore. The whole world comes to India for best medical treatment. There are several victims of violence and sex; will the Indian government send them abroad for treatment? They made sure no heads rolled.
Regrettably a young girl’s promising life is destroyed completely and violently.
It is reported that the police will invoke murder charges against them in addition to the seven sections of the Indian penal codes; attempt to murder, destruction of evidence, kidnapping or abducting, gang rape, unnatural offences, hurting to commit robbery and common intention.
The powers that be “assure that the government is committed to bring the guilty to justice as soon as possible”. Have we heard this before or have we heard this before? Apparently a panel headed by a former chief justice of the Supreme Court has been set up to revise laws and another to conduct a ‘postmortem’ of the fateful day when the bus passed by six checkpoints without being checked.
While this case has got the attention that was due to it by the mere severity of the crime committed in the capital city, sex crimes are simultaneously being reported from all parts of India making it a cauldron of crime. Now one from in and around Mangalore!
Rapes are the most under reported crimes in the world and more so in India. Infants, adolescents, teenagers, young girls, middle aged and old women. No one is spared. Not even foreign tourists. Ashamed, humiliated, socially ostracized, deserted, mutilated.
Fear, repulsion and helplessness are feelings all indian women share.
In rape cases, especially in gang rapes what is the solidarity that men feel when they verbally or non-verbally gang up to attack a woman, a helpless one at that? What makes them shameless enough to undress themselves in front of other men and involve in an act which should be private and personal?
The men in the bus obviously had not pre planned this crime. So what sparked it? Six men coming from different backgrounds turn mad all at the same time when they see flesh?
In most cases of gang rape the decisions of committing the crime in a mob is more arbitrary than preplanned.
Do normal men when they come together suddenly lose all control over themselves?
They see them as helpless and defenseless. All rapists see women as sex objects whether they are two year olds or fifty.
Most rapists blame the victim. She wanted it. No victim asks for rape. No woman is ‘available’ for rape. Contrary to the belief sex workers are not ‘available’ too. Clothes are another flimsy reason. Being married to a man also does not give him the right to rape within marriage. There is a difference between having sex and making love.
What is wrong with Indian men? Don’t quote that other nations have issues too. That does not acquit us from the crimes that are committed here.
The mind of the rape attackers
What is it that makes them animals when they see a woman alone?
Experts divide rapists based on four criteria (Nasheet Khan—deputy editor---International)
The power assertive rapist: Athletic, has a “macho” image of himself. The kind who commits date rapes; approximately 44 percent of rapes are committed by power-assertive rapists. He is physically aggressive, and will use the amount of force needed to control—degrading or obscene language, brandishing a weapon, slapping or punching—but does not intend to kill.
The anger-retaliation rapist: The perpetrator is out to punish women. This type hates women to the point that he will injure victims to the point where they require medical intervention or hospitalisation. He feels animosity towards women and wants to punish or degrade them.
Often he is a substance abuser---alcohol or drugs. He is impulsive and has an explosive temper. looks for an opportunity to commit the rape rather than for a specific victim. He attacks spontaneously and brutalizes the woman into submission.
The opportunistic rapist: He lacks the self-confidence and interpersonal skills to develop relationships with women,. He is often passive and non-athletic. This type makes use of opportunities and keeps contact with the victim and at all times attempt to make it look like the sexual act was consensual.
The sadistic rapist: Sadistic person who derives gratification from inflicting pain. He is typically charming and intelligent. The crime is premeditated and rehearsed methodically in his mind before it is attempted. Most often sadistic rapists kill their victims.
So what next?
Rapists like Satish from UP who raped and killed and mutilated six year old Vishaka, Molai Ram and Santhosh Yadav who gang raped and murdered the 10 year daughter of the jailor and a two others who sexually molested a girl and later wiped out her family were all pardoned by Pratibha Patil on the basis of “good behavior”! The then President pardoned such heinous crimes and the present president’s son makes demeaning remarks on the protesting women.
So there they are. People with social issues, anger issues, hatred issues, and above all the issue of lack of fear. This is a time for India and Indians to take historical decisions. Rape is a crime which is worse than murder. A rape victim has to live with permanent humiliation and helplessness.
Chemical Castration (to reduce the libido and sexual urges) is now demanded as a punitive measure to prevent such heinous crimes. Kamini Lau Additional Sessions Judge in Delhi says “Castration is the most befitting sentence which can be imposed on any paedophile or serial offender”. Referring to rape she says that “this is a crime which is required to be addressed differently and a full public debate with regard to imposition of castration (both surgical and chemical) for the offence of rape and molestation is the crying need of the hour”. They should be made to live with the shame they inflicted on their victims.
I know of men who love, respect, nurture, care and if need ready to sacrifice for the sake of women in their lives. We have also seen men joining in to support women’s issues. When some men have expressed shame on being a part of this system upon reading about the crimes against women, one said “I am ashamed to be a man”. Without it being only a women’s issue all people as human being who can empathise with the other ‘s suffering need to support a stringent law to prevent crimes of this kind.
Do you agree?
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