Friday, July 13, 2012

I am angry...


Today my country upholds yet another shameful story. The public molestation of a young girl by a mob of hooligans made the headlines and I couldn't help but swear in disgust. A few days ago another article that made me squirm was the treatment metted out to Pinki Pramanik. Pinki is a national level athlete who has made India proud at --- games was manhandled by the police, to perform a check on her gender. Whose business is it, if she is a male or a female ? And even if it were something that needed investigation, wasn't there any dignified way to do it ? The more I comb through newspapers these days, the more I read about the deplorable and henious ways women in this country are handled.  What happened in Guwahati is not a classic case of woman abuse. Another such incident is the Keenan Santos case - where Keenan and Reuben were killed by a mob of over-20-something boys while protecting their girlfriends. It is very common to hear about the kidnappings that happen in Delhi and Noida where woman are picked right outside their homes.  

What really hurts me is that as a soceity we have disgraced to such low levels. As a human being, there is no moral conscience left that would control such brutal behavious. Just because males are physically stronger than females, they do whatever they want and manage to get away.  We talk of India having a rich culture- is this the culture of our country where women mean nothing more than a consumable product ? And really who is responsible for harbouring such a paradigm ? The woman of this country have worked very hard to achieve an equilibrium in the society. They defied all the general norms and have excelled in every feild of occupation that was hitherto a man's domain. Indian women not only manage their careers  but are also the best homemakers. We have done everything Indian men do and have done it better. How long should we struggle and what more should we do to earn respect in this society. And yet a pertinent question is why as women should we struggle to have a dignified existence ?

These mobsters who vandalised women are not misogynists. They are worse than that - They are apathetics and sadists. Men such as these, do not deserve any exemption. They should be severly punished because really they are the sore points of this gangrenous society. But their elemination alone is not going to solve the problem. It will set an example no doubt, but the root cause will still continue to breathe. What our society today needs is education and more like a cleansing literacy. We need to have people learn and understand that it is WRONG to HURT AND DISRESPECT anybody and that if you derive pleasure out of someone's pain you are a sadist who needs treatment. I know this sounds like kindergarten morals class - but that is really the need of the day. 

Aside from the burning issue of woman manhandling (irony isn't it!) what bothered me  is the way a mob gets formed in our country. I was really shocked to see a group of people chosing to participate in the wrongdoing, instead of rolling up their sleaves to protect this female. And while a group to molest the female was so easily formed, no such congregation was formed to protect her. 

And this really brings me back to the basic premise, that has been eating me since the time I read these news. Are we humans de-evoluting to being animals ? Have we become so emotionless, heartless and callous that we no longer care about the basic values of respect and dignity ?

As an Indian woman, today, I feel downright helpess and suffocated.

So much for the country where people venerate Durga Maa.