जय जय हे महिषासुरमर्दिनि !
On 16th december 2012, a neighbourhood in south delhi experienced an incident which shook the pillars of indian society. A 23 year old female physiotherapist was beaten, gang raped, and tortured in a private bus. Since Indian law do not allow the press to publish a rape victim's name, the victim became widely known as Nirbhaya.The struggle of life and death of this brave and fearless girl symbolises the state of women in India. Our daughters, mothers , sisters, and our female friends are not safe today and it is the need of the hour to do something about it.
We can realise the contrasting nature of the title with the story.
Traditionally India, a land rich in history and vivid customs treated women not only equal but a notch above men potraying them as powerful goddesses and a souce of energy known as 'Adi shakti'. According to Hindu mythology, Adi Para Shakti—the Goddess or Devi—is the Supreme Being: The creator, the destroyer and observer of whole universe. The first chapter of Atharwaveda rightly states women as 'Protector of children, having definite knowledge, worth thousands of prayers and impressing all directions'.
Ancient India always regarded women as Ma Saraswati; the Goddess of Wisdom, Ma Durga; the Goddess of Courage and Ma Laxmi; the Goddess of Wealth, however as we marched to the modern world our land lost its innocence and took a different course. Atrocities again women rose to the extent of brutal killing of a female foeticide in the womb of a mother. If we juxtapose the ancient india with the present india, we feel ashamed of current time's occurrence of events pertaining to heinous crimes like Delhi Gang rape & Mumbai Gang Rape and the decreasing sex ratio that pertains in the indian society.
If we go to the roots of the crimes we can understand that,
The criminal attitude & gender based discrimination is directly related to the psychology of a child which baffled dominating patriarchal environment in the house with the biased lowering treatment to the girl child. This is further vitiated by the image of women by the objectification of their figure through the medium of obnoxious TV serials, vulgar Cinema, Porn videos and item number songs and dances. In such surroundings the young ones may sensitize as– 'women belong to men;' this mindset acts as a catalyst,thus enhancing crimes against women and sometimes even before they are born they need to face this brutal killing which surprisingly dominates in the urban areas and the so called 'educated IT society' too. Boy child is preferred over a girl and 'Agle baar beta hi hoga'' has been a statement which has been so popularized that the sensitive elements in the mind of the society about the females seem to be hacked and deleted.The environment in which we live today can be quintessentially defined by a song of one of the most prominent poets of india, sahir ludhianvi who says 'aurat ne janm diya mard ko, mard ne use bazaar diya'
I think now is the time where the mindset of People, Society, Police, Criminals and entire criminal Justice delivery Mechanism needs to be changed, as it is very much notorious and insensitive to maintain the dignity of women in the country. 'Enough is enough' was the thought perceived in the mind of people against the perpetrators, including the baddy juvenile of such heinous crime aftermath of Delhi Gang rape. The outstanding spirit of such remarkable reaction of people across the country demanded in reflection the justice from the Nation. If our social, political and judicial systems as a composite society are able to sensitize ourselves to inflict severe deserved punishment to all culprits; Justice can be delivered to the victims and a feeling of safety can be envisaged in women and the strength of the 'almost half' of the nation can be channelized into the stream of development.
In other words, we need to take action not by force but by will to make our country more secure and safe for our better halves and bring up reforms in the desired direction so that woman can also enjoy their freedom and rights ,and feel more empowered and fearless ,as entrusted by the Supreme law of the land.
-Varun Upasani
AISSMS IOIT
E&TC (BE-B)
