THE RAPE NIGHTMARE

I have always believed that the status of children and women is a very accurate indicator of how civilized a country is. If the children are healthy and educated, you know the country is progressive. In a place where women are not treated with equality, you know that country is bedeviled by problems.

In the past decade, one of the key features of India’s liberalizations has been the influx of women into a variety of professions and their contribution to a growing economy. However, as we read about the horrific attacks on young women in India’s two biggest cities, this seems a veneer. A teenager was raped in Mumbai by a taxi driver. Then Delhi was shaken when a young call-centre worker was picked up off the street and raped. The capital has a reputation of being dangerous but the incident in Mumbai, which often boasted of being safe for women, points to a darker trend. That women, now facing more dangers during the course of a work day, have a reason to feel unsafe in urban India. According to the latest figures, the rate of crime against women in 35 big cities is higher than the national average.

What is as disturbing as these statistics is a medieval mindset which continues to dominate our society. There is little empathy for the victims of violence, little understanding of the gravity of the problem. Even political parties like the Shiva Sena, whose basic commitment should be towards protecting women’s rights, make reactionary statements like “women invite rape by wearing provocative clothes”. Women today are no longer confined to their homes and their jobs require them to be working at odd hours. It falls on India’s civil society to safeguard women even more but we have not adjusted to this fact. The courts need to become more sympathetic towards rape victims, increase the rate of convictions and mete out justice swiftly. None of this has happened.

Indians take pride in the visible symbols of the progress of their cities-whether it is urban growth rate or the mushrooming of malls. But economic growth means little if the same cities become zones of social anxiety where half of its citizens feel unsafe.