A shocking matter that is being
discussed all over India these days caught my attention also. Seventeen girls
were raped last month in the state of Haryana in North India. Haryana is the
state where I lived three years working with my colleagues in the village. We were
mainly concentrated on working for the upliftment of the women. (Haryana is the
state famous for female feticide as the census 2011 terms the female male ratio
as 830 females to 1000 males). So this news affected me. Later I went into the
matter more and then I read in other reports that from 2007 an average of fifty
women are raped every month here[1].
Most of them who are raped are Dalit[2]
(low caste) women.
More than the shocking news, I was
astonished, startled and disappointed to hear the solutions put forward by the
Khap Panjayaths[3]. (It is a social political
administration or organization which tries to protect the caste rules and
imposed regulations of the society. They are mainly in the states of Rajasthan,
Haryana and Uttar Pradesh).
The solutions are very strange and they
never address about the inequality of women and the caste discrimination. Some
of the solutions were the following.
Marry off the girls at an age of 15.
Stop eating fast foods, as these foods
increase the sexual hormones in women.
Teach the girls some self-defense
techniques such as Judo, karate, etc.
Child marriage[4]
So bizarre, unreasonable, foolish and
illogical are the solutions. Still they are blaming heavily the victims of rape
for the incidents. Even one Haryana Congress leader Dharambir Goyat[5]
blamed women telling that 90% of rapes occur due to consensual sex. West Bengal
state chief minister Mamta Banerjee[6]
said that Rapes are happening because men and women are interacting more
freely. And so in this pattern goes the blame.
But no one except the NGO workers and
social activists demand to punish the rapists. No one thinks of doing anything
to eradicate the social inequality or to make rules to stop oppressing low
caste people by the high caste people.
The dream of equality of women and
social equality among all people still remains in the words of constitution
which came into force in 1949. So the untouchability and discrimination exists
in most parts of India, especially in North India. I am also a witness and
victim to this to a certain extent when I was in North India engaging in the
social work. Thank the rapists, at least they treat Dalit women without any
discrimination and touch too much. Crazy world.
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