'We want justice' is the common slogan repeatedly screamed by youngsters in the protests. Some want rapists to be hanged, some want them to be castrated. Most want the case to be fast-tracked. Midst all this protests, 3 rape cases are registered in Delhi, and to my knowledge, 2 in Ahmedabad. Various debates have erupted on social media like Facebook, twitter and blogs where people are not letting go this chance of being socially active.
Our mighty government spokesperson then came up to give stupid statements of 'actions-will-be-taken' and the mob anger instigated even more. The mass' thumb line is one: WE WANT JUSTICE. They say they want the rapists to be hanged/stoned/etc.
Fortunately, the government had agreed to fast track the case, which wouldn't have been possible without active participation of the public. But some intellectual minds question if this 'democracy' is a threat to our 'democracy'. I wonder how this protest is going to help the entire cause. We have strong enough laws for the accused, but it is implementation of the law that can help. Somewhere, I agree to the practical fact that police can't be present everywhere like a superhero to save girls from beasts. Until and unless the morals of the society are restored, men realize that a woman is woman and not object, till then it would be the woman's own responsibility to protect herself. Take it as our sacrifice to give our next generation a better environment. Harsh penalties won't really help end this social evil. Murderers get death penalties, still murders happen. Punishments are always there in our law for such heinous acts. But the dysfunction lies in our system.
Fear of punishment is the best deterrent for any crime. A rapist enjoys the chance because of sparse conviction rate. Fast-track courts stand as a good solution to cut the delay, but it would be worthless without proper execution and investigation. The improvement has to be made from stage one.
Stage 1 is WOMAN. I would link you to THIS article, though long to get an idea of what I mean. Stage 2 in our police force. Cops do all possible things to discourage the victim from lodging an FIR due to reasons best known to us and them. So, all FIRs against rape must be lodged in-camera and all rape-related FIR must be referred to a special gender cell made in every police district. These specialized cells ought to monitor all rape investigations to assist build strong prosecution cases. Laws should be revised but only rarest cases must be dealt as murder. Capital punishment will only encourage rapist to kill the victim.
Also the fact that as a society we must rise upon from judging the victim's character and only see her as a victim. A rape is a crime, even if a sex worker is raped. Also it is time when we legalize prostitution with proper norms and make 'red-light' area easily accessible for hungry beasts.(Of course keeping in consideration the safety of women involved) It may seem off-beat at this emotional hour, but this is what a young 19 year old can think, as a woman who thinks protesting on such issues takes a lot more than just being a part of candle-lit urban middle class following a mass hysteria.
