We have built a rapist’s paradise

A journalist friend’s social network post on the Delhi bus rape made some scathing observations, and correctly so, about how the nation is truly ‘outraged’ only when sexual violence occurs in the heart of political and economic powerhouses. 

Society and what we call “the system” are equally responsible for the state of sexual siege the women of this country are forced to live under.

Newspapers come up with illustrations of statistics and news channels line up ‘experts’ from different walks of life to hold prime time panel discussions on the deteriorating social conditions.

There is a lot of drama and rage before cameras and mikes for a few days, then all is gradually forgotten — till another mauled female form is discovered abandoned and battling for life.

Though psychologists may line up a host of reasons to explain the behaviour of perpetrators of sexual violence, it boils down to few basic reasons.

• Societal endorsement of masculine aggression
• Lack of airtight case-building that will lead to conviction
• Flawed portrayal of women in popular culture
• Outdated patriarchal social system that tends to punish the victim than the violator
• An ultra-slow legal system that can be exploited to delay justice to the effect of denying it

As long as we have ludicrous ‘out-of-court settlements’ for rape such as rapist agreeing to marry the victim, the justice system is taking a beating. This is an endorsement that the rape victim is in some way ‘contaminated’ and ‘unfit’ for leading a normal life. 

It also puts the victim at the mercy of the violator, who has already destroyed every minute element of self-respect she possessed. Every act of sexual intercourse after such a wedding is nothing short of socially-endorsed rape.

The absence of quick legal redress ensures that the victim is forced to put up with inordinate delays as case hearings are postponed and mental wounds stay raw and open. And thanks to the media attention (which usually goes overboard), every last bit of privacy of the victim goes for a toss — making a return to normal life even more difficult.

From policemen, politicians and social workers, we need to go miles in terms of treating cases of sexual violence with sensitivity. There is no dearth of top cops and politicians who shift the blame on victims’ tight clothes and loose morals.

Above all, the lack of a punishment that serves as a deterrent to rapists is the biggest inducement for the perpetrators to continue their brutal hobby with impunity. I reiterate my call, from an earlier column, for surgical castration of rapists. 

If there is anything that can deter the rapist, it is the permanent destruction of the supply chain that powers the macabre hunt.

I know this is not a permanent solution. However, with predators reduced to paper tigers, forced to live in self-loathing for the rest of their lives, the world becomes a better place for the fairer sex.

(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on December 19, 2012.)

Jarawa ‘cabaret’ reeks of colonial hangover

All hell broke loose a couple of days ago when British media aired footages of Andaman’s Jarawa tribal women dancing half-naked for tourists in exchange of food. It is alleged that the policemen who are deployed to keep the tourists from intruding into their reserved area were the facilitators for this ‘entertainment’.
With brickbats being rained on the Central government and the Andaman administration, the Centre has ordered an inquiry and has sought explanation from local authorities.
The blame game is on but no clarity has emerged till now on how Jarawas, designated by international bodies as human equivalent of ‘endangered’, can be treated so shabbily. The whole episode has proven that despite suffering from colonial bondage for 400-plus years we don’t know how to respect our own people.
Or maybe it’s a new phenomenon called ‘brown man’s burden’. When the ‘white man’ set out to reform the ‘uncivilised’ world with the Bible in one hand and a gun in the other, it sounded the death knell for several ancient civilisations, which did not conform to the West’s idea of modernity.
Today’s torchbearers of freedom, liberty and equality, who invade countries to liberate countries from tyrants and despots, are themselves products of the blood of indigenous populations who were suppressed, oppressed, tortured, enslaved and/or annihilated.
Canada and the US were once the lands of proud Red Indians who lived in sync with nature. They were no match for the ‘white’ invaders who almost exterminated them with guns and diseases. Canada’s Indian population was almost wiped out infecting them with smallpox — to which they had no resistance. Today they are refugees in their own country, living in reservations on government handouts. The story of Australia’s aborigines is not much different.
Civilisations of Incas, Aztecs and were also decimated by the European invaders. The ironic part is that when the West went to invade, plunder, colonise and enslave the rest of the world, the missions had full support of the religious authorities who are supposed to promote values of love, peace and tolerance.
Why look elsewhere when we have our own illustrious examples of trampling on indigenous populations. Almost all the mega power projects, industries and other such installations have displaced millions of tribal folk from their ancestral land. There begins the bloody tale of state-sponsored genocide — all for ‘greater common good’.
These illiterate people, unaccustomed to the wily ways of modernity, are being ruthlessly exploited ever since. They form the cheap labour, who don’t seek their rights. They work in hazardous industries as unskilled hands without safety gear. Their women become domestic helps and the remaining unlucky ones are pushed into flesh trade.
Children don’t go to school, start life as rag-pickers addicted to substance abuse and join the ranks of criminals.
While we crib about the extent of reservation benefits they enjoy, we should realise that what we perceive as unfair is the miniscule few who managed to survive and succeed. Their acquired modernity is no indication of equity or equality.
The special treatment and protection extended to the original inhabitants of this land is not our charity but an insufficient compensation for what we have unjustly taken away from them — a life and happiness we can never replace.
How we treat them is an acid test for us as a nation, a democracy and polity. And we must not fail.