Mendependent India

With nearly 17 rape cases in the last one month, the state of Haryana is under the spotlight. The government has miserably failed; Bhupinder Singh Hooda is incapable of administration; blah blah blah. All the fuss created about Haryana recently, makes one wonder, if it’s really that big an issue. If the statistics are to be believed, 713 rape cases were registered in Haryana in the calendar year 2011, which accounts to nearly 59 per month. 59 and 17 (?); well, am not too sure about the seriousness of this issue. A cynic might be quick to retort that my statement is harsh on the current victims. No, I did not mean it that way.

The issue came into limelight, only after one of the victims decided that she had gone through enough and immolated herself. The opposition and the media were on to it, all of a sudden. My question is, ‘’What were you all doing when the previous crimes were perpetrated?’’

The opposition wants to dissolve Hooda’s government and they deem Sonia Gandhi’s visit to the victim’s family as a political stunt. While these people are so busy creating politics about this, none cared to come out with a solution. Hey wait; they did put forward a solution. The Khap panchayat members said that removing the restriction on marriageable age would be the fix. It will be dishonouring, even to my puny wisdom, to write a reply to that so called solution. Yesterday, the former Haryana CM, Om Prakash Chautala said, ‘’We should learn from the past. Especially in the Mughal era, people used to marry their girls early in order to save them from Mughal atrocities.’’ What’s next? Are they going to make condoms and contraceptive pills compulsory for these boys and girls to avoid teenage pregnancy? The fact that we are ruled by people with such archaic and primitive mindsets, gives me a sick qualm.

A little peek into the discussion forums gave another headache. Starting with the current issue, people end up with Hindus Vs Muslims and North India Vs South India. A few say that the accused men should be castrated. A few others even say that all men of Haryana should be castrated.

Punishment to the culprits and justice to the victims is a must, but, where is the solution to these barbaric crimes?

Dr. Abdul Kalam’s dream of India in 2020 is not just a pie in the sky. It is a calculated visionary. The human resource in India is in its prime; meaning most of the people fall between the age group of 20 to 40. Whilst this age group has a lot of potential on which Dr. Kalam is banking, this group can also go the downward.

Western culture has fully crept into the entertainment media, but, most part of our society remains conservative and the boy-girl norms still exist. The barrier created by stress and tension between boys and girls, continue to stand tall. Restriction and conservatism will only urge the adolescents to do malpractices. Allow them to mingle; give them sex education. They have to understand each other and build a moral bond of trust in between them. A boy, who grows into a man without the access of thoughts and feelings of a girl, would see a woman only as an object of pleasure. If the barrier between boys and girls are brought down in this generation, women empowerment and women equality will automatically ensue in the subsequent generation.

Mahatma Gandhi said that India would achieve true Independence and Freedom only when a woman is able to walk all alone at midnight and feel safe. Going by his lines, we have a long way to go for our Independence. Until then, we are not Independent; we are just Men-dependent.

Swasthika Sang