What have we learnt in the six years of Nirbhaya?

Six years have passed since the Nirbhaya case. Six years is enough time for systems to be put in place, or at least, begin somewhere. After all the hue and cry and all the finger pointing business which happened at the time, the Uber rape case came as a slap in the face of the ruling party, the then opposition, who had once pointed some real long fingers at the then UPA government on the sensitive women safety issue. The government had failed us then and the government is failing us now.

Why? Is it really that difficult? I have no intentions of politicizing the matter, but if it so happens, then so be it. Shouldn’t every serious issue be a matter of political discourse? It sometimes seems that the working class women are not very attractive vote banks. That is one part of the problem, a small one.

The bigger one is the reactions to series of nonsense, those are worthless of being called a remark, that is put forward by political leaders and social figures as reasons. Can any reason be reason enough to let somebody assault a woman’s integrity?

A member of parliament goes on to question the need of housewives and school-going girls to use mobiles and the reason is that it could avoid getting into small talk with people outside their homes, that is a smart plan of action there!

When a teacher starts finding fault in the girl for resisting a gang of men who went on to rape her and pull her organs out, so that she would have lived to book them, what hope should we be left with for the BRIGHT future of India?

It’s amusing and heart wrenching at the same time how people unknown to reason can go on to find innovative logics, like this great leader of the Khap Panchayat who chose to blame such incidents on fast food!

We live in a country where chiefs of influential organizations go on to state that a man has the right to disown his wife if she fails to fulfill her responsibilities, may somebody ask these preachers of culture, how is failure and fulfillment measured?

We have astrologers who predict rapes by zodiac signs and also ministers who claim it to be the fault in one’s stars, leaders who feel it was Sita who was wrong to have crossed the Lakshman Rekha as Ravan has always been out there and ministers who feel roaming with any man other than a relative after dark is unsafe.

It is surprising that banning skirts as uniform to keep girls away from the lustful eyes of boys is a part of reform and taping the eyes of boys who carry that gaze is not.

A country where Godmen state that the girl should consider that man to be a brother and beg for mercy, leaders of political parties use petrol and fire synonymously for men and women and lawyers state that they have never seen an incident happen to a respected lady, what change are you expecting and how?

Does a respected lady stand for a woman who fulfils all her duties towards her family in silence and never asks a thing in return, a woman who is home before it gets dark, a woman who wears only Indian outfits, a woman who does not stand tall in her office putting in equal amounts of efforts as her co-workers, a woman who is far from the use of technology, a woman who wears overcoats or a woman who eats only satvik aahar?

These things have been said, by people who run our country, some of them are policy makers and some responsible for shaping the future of the nation and some by those who love being blindly followed. Are we going to limit our independence because of people who blame us for the wrong?

Six years is enough time for a change to begin. We forget too soon and too easy. Are we going to just let go?

Shruti Sharma