Wishing away India's culture of rape

There have been few concrete steps taken to change gender dynamics in India and assert that women’s freedom to take their own decisions — of dress, of love, of education, of work — is both essential, and at the root of India’s rape culture. If leaders are more cautious about making misogynistic statements, what has replaced it is statements like those made by Information and Broadcasting minister Rajyavardhan Rathore, who while not saying that women should stop working in front-line jobs in the army or in the media, suggested that more back-end jobs would be better suited for them. Similarly, when ‘Kiss of Love’ protests broke out across the country in response to moral policing, the protests were not muscularly backed by the state, and dozens of protesters were arrested.

If India had read the minds of its rapists and molesters correctly, and had acknowledged that women’s freedoms are what offend these criminals and their defenders, there would have been no need for an “India’s Daughter.” Unfortunately, it is only when interviews of this nature are conducted that we will ever know how many men in India still think of women. The least we can do is act honestly and immediately on these repugnant attitudes.

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu said on March 4 that a documentary that defames India would not be allowed to be aired. Unfortunately, all this will do is once again give cover to the men whose views diminish India.

Statements such as these, which separate the ‘good’ girl from the ‘bad’ girl, are not rare, and have been made repeatedly by leading politicians of the country such as Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. Mr. Khattar said during his election campaign that “if a girl is dressed decently, a boy will not look at her in the wrong way.” Nationalist Congress Party leader Asha Mirje said in early 2014, “Did Nirbhaya really have to go to watch a movie at 11 in the night with her friend? Take the Shakti Mills gang-rape case. Why did the (victim) go to such an isolated spot at 6 p.m.?” A couple of days back, a video of a right-wing leader saying in the presence of Bharatiya Janata Party MP Yogi Adityanath that Muslim women’s corpses should be dug up and raped resurfaced.

There is no police force in the world and no mobile app that can completely prevent rape as long as there are men who believe that women who assert their own choices deserve to be raped or killed, or that a poor girl’s life has no value, or that rape is a legitimate tool of caste and religious hatred.

truthbetold wrote:Nirbhaya gang rape case,  techie rape case by taxi driver, foreign female visitor rape, and similar news items made headlines recently.  Most of these happened in cities and they were widely publicized. They have immediate economic consequences such as women who are a big part of indian city commerce will be afraid to use public transportation and will restrict their activities to before dark and to high activity public places. Women will have to find safer commuting options to far away workplaces resulting in dramatic changes in workforce demographics.  High income and employment generating foreign tourism could be lost.  

India cannot wait for the so called attitudinal change to fight rape in cities.  It has to spend more rupees and improve law enforcement techniques to demonstratively attack the rape problem.  Immediate goal is to make women in cities less vulnerable to rape and to strike fear in the hearts of would be perpetrators.  

That is the primary cry of delhi protests.  Fast , effective and visible law enforcement action. 

Is this going to solve the primary problem of rape?  Is it going change men's attitude towards women? 

The answer is no.  Those are long term cultural and moral issues.  They should be addressed in a long term fashion. However,  law enforcement solution can help now.