A comment on what has changed an year after Nirbhaya - while crime has not gone away, our response to rape as a crime has changed
Exactly a year, since the Nirbhaya Case made headlines and shocked us all from the despondent acceptance with which we accepted news reports of sexual crimes and rape; before her, there was always an attitude of ‘hota hai’ beneath every reading of similar news items. A sense that what happened to a rape victim was somehow removed from the truths of our own lives. That the horror faced by a victim of a sexual crime was something that could not happen to us.
It is precisely this pseudo-insulation of middle-India that has prevented change large and small, from happening.
But Nirbhaya was one of us, a girl who was a sister, daughter, friend, dreamer, optimist and somehow, represented our own struggles to rise above our circumstances and better ourselves. She was one of us, glaring at ‘eve-teasers’ at the nukkad in the day-time, dupatta-covered, downcast eyes after twilight, rushing to reach home in the rush hour traffic, edging away in crowds to avoid groping hands, studiously ignoring the hungry male gaze at work and in public, alert for stalkers, avoiding eye-contact with flashers and still, amidst this daily relentless struggle with half of the population of her world….dreaming of and striving for a better life for herself.
The cruelty and injustice of what happened to her and the tragedy of her passing away in spite of her courage was a symbol of what could and perhaps would happen to us any time in our lives, at work, during travel, at the hands of bosses, colleagues and in-laws, and in various forms.
So, our collective grief and anger rose like a volcano.
And, changed many things. It changed the justice system a little, the policing for such crimes a little more, and made us very aware of what many of our ”leaders’ thought of us (dented, painted, et al) and our struggles to be heard. It changed the politics of our capital.
But, now, a year on, as I read about more Nirbhayas, I wonder if anything has changed for us, for our sisters and our daughters. The male attitudes are the same. It will take a generation or more to do so.
What HAS changed is our attitude towards such crimes.
Nirbhaya broke the conspiracy of silence and showed us that talking about and coming forward to accuse the perpetrator was an act of courage. That it was not shameful to be a victim and that the shame is the perpetrators’ and not ours.
She has ignited an anger and righteous awareness of our rights, which now gives us dignity and self-respect.
We hold the memory of our sister, Nirbhaya in our hearts and pay homage to her by supporting our other sisters by standing by them when they need us. We live our lives to the fullest and fulfil her dreams by fulfilling our own.
Pic credit: Economic Times (From their slideshow of images from the 2012 protests in Delhi)
read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, indivisual posts do not necessarily represent the platofrom's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
Falling in love, marriage, a hidden secret, divorce. Despite all this, Vinita noticed her life was full of love that came in various unexpected shades!
“Aap jinke kareeb hotey hain, woh badey kush naseeb hotey hain…”
Just as Vinita was settling down into the cab seat, the driver put on music and the song started to play. It took her back immediately to that evening ten years ago, when Gautam had sung that very same song to her on the first evening they had met. She could remember every single detail of that evening so very clearly.
The driver obliged and immediately stopped the bus for them. Many men got down. They shamelessly lined up just by the side of the bus and peed on the other side of the road.
I work in Pune. My family lives far away from me in a small town along the coast of Konkan. I get to meet them once every fortnight for which I have to take a nine-hour long overnight bus journey.
A number of protests are taking place in Gujarat after the gruesome gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman came to light. Will this ever stop?
As India awaits the hanging of the Nirbhaya rapists that is scheduled on 22nd January 2020, the gravity of sexual violence scenario hits us again.
One more Nirbhaya Day comes along on 16th December, 6 years since Jyoti Singh a.k.a Nirbhaya was brutally gangraped. Has anything changed for the women of India?
Amidst all the crimes and atrocities humanity had witnessed, one could not disagree on including the night of December 16, 2012, in the prime list of this sinful history. A young, aspiring physiotherapist traveling with her friend was brutally assaulted in a moving bus, in the capital city of our country, by a group of men who not only gang-raped her, but inserted a rusted iron rod inside her private parts to the extent that her intestines were pulled out.