Anatomy of social skepticism!

The history teacher, I remember, in ninth grade taught us of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, better known as the "Father of modern India", known for his efforts to abolish Sati Pratha, (the Hindu funeral practice in which the widow immolated herself on her husband's funeral pyre) and child marriage. The latter is still practiced in many rural parts of the country. But, did it happen in a fortnight? Was Rome built in a day? Its baby steps to everything.

The gruesome incident that took place on the evening of 16^th December left not only the capital but the whole nation in a sense of dreadful awe. The whole nation was dumbstruck at the act of brutality which continued to the hullabaloo at India Gate between the protestors and Delhi police clasping each other in the paroxysm of anguish on the weekend of 23^rd December led by stupefied acts of a group of detrimental people who joined the peaceful protestors and evoked the clash by breaking the barricades set by police with lathis and started stoning the police personnel.

And still, we did what we do the best. Yes. All we did was blame.

Whom did you put the blame on? When it was you who deserved it!

Yes, there is a system fault in everything that happened, from that evening forth to the weekend, but up to a certain extent. For a hideous crime such as this, there should be amendments made in the Indian Penal Code for conviction to teach those irksome elements in the society a lesson and something which they fear and shit their pants before even thinking about bringing to picture. But it’s not just that which would help us eradicate problems like rape and molestation from the society, it would take a lot more. It is the government’s job to provide security and a responsive administration. But the reason rapes happen, are rarely reported, and are listlessly investigated, is not because of our government, it is because of our society. It is because we make a rape survivor feel that she is better off not asking for redress for it happens to be enticing the entire social shaming and meddlesome questioning that goes with it.

There also is a strict need to have institutional reforms to change the mind set of people, which is the patient task of families and schools, though less emotionally satisfying than attacking Manmohan Singh. It isn’t sceptic but clear that society does influence such acts on a greater scale. The crying need of the hour is to work on the social stigma regarding the respect of women, on the lack of education and gender equality. No doubt we are still living in a society where there exist men who cannot tolerate their better half earning more than them, and we so called struggle to get ourselves under the tag of developed nations with such mentality. Not happening.

Protesting there at India Gate some women later complained that there were men whistling and taunting them in the mob, and said “If they are here to protest against the gangrape, how can they disrespect women?” I would rather suggest that, instead of complaining later they should have slapped them then and there itself and asked them the same question. And, if you don’t, you are equally encouraging them. Yes, I am suggesting that the women need to take a stand too. Ask him politely once, twice, if he’d be a gentleman he would withdraw (though a gentleman wouldn’t do such a thing in the first place) and if he doesn’t, kick him in the balls the third time. That is a solution but yes, we need to work on skinning out the problem itself, we need to make society a better place to live in. And that’s what we are doing.

All these online Petitions, changing the display pictures of your facebook and #twitter accounts, neither the street lightning nor the token gestures like VIP’s giving up their security, none of these are going to change anything. Talking about men whistling disrespectfully and women taking a stand, we know we are pressing for a solution but do we actually realise that we ourselves are the nocuous problem?

We probably do need another Raja Ram Mohan Roy to step up for the nation yet again, but once when we sagaciously enough understand that we ourselves are the problem, it would not be a gig much strenuous to scrutinize that we our own selves are the solution too!