In any form of society today, a woman is treated as nothing more than a submissive subhuman. Why is it so? Are we supposed to be proud about the fact that humans can reach planets like Mars today but more than half of our population cannot go out at night? If that is the case, we as a society have drastically failed.
The rape case of Dr. Moumita Debnath is an apt example of how a woman is treated in society. If a doctor can be raped at her workplace, then how can a normal woman consider herself to be safe even inside her house? Dr. Debnath had been continuously going through thirty-six hour work sessions in order to complete her thesis when one night she was suddenly molested, raped and brutally murdered at her workplace that is RG Kar Medical Hospital. The worst part is how the authorities dealt with the outcome of the rape. The parents of the victim were not allowed to see her for thirty six hours. The hospital authorities termed it as a suicide in order to hide the culprit. RG Kar Hospital is now very famous for disguising other murders as suicides as well. In fact, the culprit of the murder who is called Sanjay Roy, has three failed marriages which have reportedly failed because he committed domestic violence against his ex wives. After knowing this, the Kolkata police forces had still allowed him to work as a ‘civic volunteer’. The funniest fact of the matter is that after the Principal of RG Kar Medical College, namely Mr. Sandeep Ghosh, resigned; within a matter of a week he became the Principal of Calcutta Medical College. This proves the fakeness of our society. Around eighty five women in India get raped per day which is a great increase from twenty five thousand rape cases a year to thirty one thousand rape cases a year. Other than Dr. Debnath, a doctor who is in a profession that saves lives, there are many more rape cases such as Hathras Case of 2020, The Vernerian Case in Hyderabad in 2019 where another doctor faced unfair rape and most importantly the Nirbhaya Case of 2012 are prominent examples of how brutally and unfairly women become subjects of mishap and violence. One must question why are so many rapes happening regularly nowadays? In truth, rape has been happening consistently in india for decades but in reality, protests and outrages are happening regularly nowadays because of which these incidents are coming to light. This is the condition in the biggest democracy of the world.
Rape is not the only type of harassment faced by women though. There are many more horrific incidents that women face every day such as eve teasing. A woman is mistreated since the moment she is born because as per reports, around five lakh women in India are killed just after their birth and they become the annual victims of female infanticide. They are either killed by suffocation, burning or burying illegally. In China, after the one child policy was established, there was an exception to it which stated that if the first child had some form of a disability then the couple could have another child which lead many families who did not wish for females to harm their own girl child.
According to Vir Das, on one hand women are considered as Goddess Lakshmi and Goddess Parvati and on the other hand, they are treated as a burden to the society, a kind of subhuman that could simply be married off and is of no actual use. Many familes in India still believe that having at least one son is very important. Hypocrisy is a huge integral part of our society.
According to BBC News, a young Pakistani girl called Saba Maqsood who had eloped with her lover was shot by her uncle and father as a lesson to not elope for the other girls of their family. When a family apparently kills to protect their honour and conserve their place in society, it is termed as honour killing. Her uncle and father are like many other humans who believe that they have done nothing wrong. The injured girl had many scars which healing but it is unlikely that they will ever fade as she refuses to speak or forgive her family.
Victim blaming is also extremely prevalent in society which is one of the biggest causes of rape. One of the murderers of the Nirbhaya case, namely Mukesh Singh, stated that if a girl wears western clothes and roams around after dark then she deserves to be raped. If that is the case then why do women over the age of sixty and girls below the age of six get molested? In fact, according to NCBR report, more than ninety five percent women in India who have been raped have been raped by someone they know that is either someone from their family or workplace. Therefore, how do the clothes a woman wears or the time she goes out at night matter? In fact, the maximum amount of rapes are performed in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where rural women are heavily clothed. These are the pseudo causes of rapes which people believe due to societal conditioning.
The real causes of rape and other forms of harassment is the patriarchal culture, the toxic masculinity which depicts women as mere sexual toys to be objectified and played with. Sixty five percent of men believe that women deserve to be beaten sometimes. One out of three Indian women have been subjects of domestic violence.
Simply because a woman is wearing short clothes at night does not mean she is inviting men to have sexual relations with her. If a woman is under intoxication and gives her consent, it is not counted as consent. When a fourteen year old in West Bengal got raped, the Chief Minister, Home Minister and Health Minister of the state, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, said that the victim was in love with the boy. If two people are in love, that really does not give the right for a person to rape another person. If two people are even married and the man forces the woman to have sex even that is considered as marital rape. According to POCSO, even if a minor gives consent for sex, it is not counted as consent unless she is at least eighteen years old.
Raping is not solely caused by mere sexual urge which is sometimes shown in films. There are three types of rapists ie power rapists who perform rape to feel power over someone, sadistic rapists who perform rape in order to inflict pain and anger rapists who rape to curb their anger and in these cases, they often murder the victim after raping. A psychologist, Dr Madhumita interviewed various murderers and rapists and she concluded that while murderers feel some guilt, rapists never feel any regret for their crimes. They feel like the victims deserved their punishments. This is mainly because of the wrong portrayals of media, particularly in Bollywood films, as mentioned before. In ‘Animal’ movie, the protagonist is often seen hitting his wife whenever he wishes, objectifying her as a thing and justifying cheating on her. In the movie ‘Kambakt Ishq’ the protagonist silences the heroine by kissing her as a form of love when she is in the middle of saying something because according to him, what a woman says is nonsensical. In the movie ‘Kabir Singh’ a slap is justified as an act of deep, immortal and passionate love. In all the verbal abuses in Hindi and Bhojpuri, only the name of a female is mentioned. When a popular politician did something wrong, people wanted his wife, his sister and his mother to get raped and murdered because women are seen by society as ‘weaker objects’. In some languages, women address their husbands as ‘Swami’ and ‘Shauhar’ which means that they consider their husband to be greater than themselves rather than equal to themselves.
There are certain ways through which a person can report female harassment crimes. Under Indian Penal Code Section 509, a person would be imprisoned for one year if he engages in any eve teasing. Under IPC Section 342 D, a person would have to pay a fine and be imprisoned for three years if they stalk someone. Engaging in any form of cyber crime is punishable and the person accused would go to jail for three years. Any form of assault that outrages the modesty of a woman would lead a person to go to jail for two years and pay a fine under IPC 354. Under IPC 375, a person would be seeking jail time for a minimum of ten years and a fine of at least three lakh rupees if they rape a lady. If they leave the lady in vegetative state then they would be imprisoned for at least twenty years and would have to pay for the medical expenses and rehabilitation of the woman. If a woman is asked for dowry then under IPC 498A that criminal would be arrested.
Any false allegations made by women are severely penalized as well because they undermine the words of those women who speak the truth. A man was wrongly put in jail in Uttar Pradesh for four and a half years under false allegations of rape by the woman. Therefore, the woman also was subjected to four and a half years of jail by High Court as a fair punishment.
‘Justice delayed is justice denied’. Around thirty six people have been arrested in the rape and murder case of Dr. Debnath but there has still not been any verdict and the investigation is outgoing. Stricter laws with much stricter and stringent punishments should be created by the parliament to prevent crimes against women. Women should be treated as blessings on earth because women as sisters, mothers and daughter contribute a lot in society. If there were no women, a society would cease to exist. Therefore, women deserve our respect. People should not classify women anymore or speak about the rights of women. It should rather be termed as human rights because this concerns all humans. As Swami Vivekanand said, “If we want a family to flourish, we must prioritize and educate the women first and foremost.”
By: SHREEJA MUKHERJEE
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