India's rape problem: Only State at fault and not Society?

An exclusive report on Tuesday said that the men who raped a young photojournalist in Mumbai last month had shown her porn clippings and also had unnatural sex with her. Another report said a 50-year-old hawker was raped and killed, also in Mumbai. Children, girls,

, none are being spared in the Indian

today.

The call is for stricter police vigilance on the streets. Is it an practical idea to guard the massive population of the country round the clock? Even if possible, how long can we survive as a nation depending on policing?

Please don't pass the buck by blaming law and police

Only law can't protect the modesty of our women. Reasserting that point on television debates and social media chats again and again will take us nowhere. Some TV debates run by hysteric anchors project the matter in chalk and cheese. "You should be hanged for raping," is the justice on the spot for the most. The anger is understandable but retributive justice shouldn't be the choice of a human society.

Law is a subject of evolution, it can't be an instant coffee ordered by the media

Law is made by man and can be violated by him easily. Deploying more policemen on the streets doesn't guarantee that women will be safer. Policemen, too, are found harassing women many a time. Who shields those women? Courts? The court is already overburdened and can not give epoch-making verdicts overnight. Evolution and change of law is not instant coffee ordered by the hyper-active media. It took long debates to create a Constitution for the nation and yet it is being criticised for various shortfalls. It is not that easy.

In the past, the society and not police had played a major role in women-related issues

The state is targetted for each rape that takes place in the country. The focus is not right. At some point, the society has to play a broader role in reforming itself and the state can only play a supporting role. The same had happened when social reformers in the India took the initiative and were backed by foreign rulers.

Vidyasagars and Rammohans had fought for women's rights. What about today?

It was Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar who had taken up the noble causes of imparting education to women and allow widows to remarry while Raja Rammohan Roy fought against the social menace of Sati. If a few individuals in colonised India some hundred years ago could succeed to take on social evils, why can't we in a modern and independent India ensure a rape-free environment?

Why do children's video games have sexual content? Are they not juveniles?

When a TV actor gets assaulted, people watch tamasha and then the state is blamed

It is true that crime against women is a politically unprofitable subject and hence not many politicians feel about it. But why do we have to look upto the politicians and police for every blow that is being inflicted on the women? A few days ago, a television actress was assaulted in broad daylight in Mumbai. Yet, the onlookers, despite knowing what had happened to the young photojournalist a few days ago, kept watching the tamasha. How do we expect that such inaction will take care of our women's security?

People around us are too indifferent today

Let's face it. We are too indifferent till our own blood or friend gets affected by the menace. The anger of such a society is totally irrelevant. It will feel the agony time and again and keep barking up the wrong tree. That's all about India's revolution against rape.

We love to watch a Sharon Stone crossing legs in Basic Instinct

The Indian mind has an obsession with sex and no law can change that. I still see people love to watch the 'leg-crossing' scene of Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. Stories related to rape, scandals and women exposing get maximum page views, which make publishers supply more such 'food for the public'. Pornography is a strong addiction and late-night sleaze in local cable channels is a favourite weekend time-pass in post-liberalised India.

Why children's video games have sexual content?

Even children's video games include sexual content. Why is there no moral responsibility in the first place to guide those youngsters in the first place rather than gun for their head when they commit a grave crime? There is no urgency for a self-control anywhere and even the so-called spiritual leaders can't resist the sexual temptation. It is a sign of an erosion of mind caused by an uncontrolled materialistic urge. Police and courts can't change this behaviour, I am afraid.

Social icons today make rape a 'funny' analogy

We feel curious about sex (thanks to our social conservatism), yet dirty (again the conservatism) and yet funny (again the conservatism). It looks strange when a popular writer ridicules the fall of rupee in terms of rape. Is rape yet such a shallow commodity for us or is it because we love to make fun of anything related to sex? We exhibit our dark sense of humour by discussing 'non-veg' jokes and most of the abusive language that we use are related in some way to the women. What big change will the cosmetic surgery at the institution level will bring if we don't learn to think on the right lanes at the basic level?

We love our unlimited democracy

There is a huge debate on the 'soft punishment' for the juvenile in the December 16 gangrape case. The argument that the juvenile should be hanged nullifies the entire law system. If 'justice on the spot' is the solution to these issues, then we will soon require a firing squad to execute people. Those who are making such hasty remarks of hang or castrate the culprits should understand that they are also making use of the same unlimited democracy that those rapists are.

And this unlimited freedom is actually hurting us from all angles and we are ending up with more hollow talks than anything substantial. The juvenile in the Delhi gangrape case has at least been tried in the court. There are several rapists who have not been even identified and still roam about freely in the society. A serial rapists and murderer ran away from a jail in Bangalore recently. The man was in jail for several rapes and murders and yet no national media channel dedicated any slot for him. Is the Delhi gangrape case more profitable in terms of viewership?

A Delhi rape is a rape, what about the girl ripped apart in a West Bengal village?

We must decide fast whether we build the society from top down or bottom up or remain content with fierce but meaningless debates that only console but never erases the fear. The Delhi and Mumbai rapes are projected as 'elite cases' while a college student gangraped and ripped apart in a village in West Bengal never gets any justice whatsoever. Yet, people cry that no justice has been done. The problem is more with the mindset of the drivers of today's society than the law and order issue. We all are responsible for the currents state of affairs in some way or the other. Witch-hunting doesn't help.