Rape? Let's Outrage and FORGET.

"He is a rapist. Kill him."

For every rape, death IS the deserved punishment. One may suggest various ways of killing or causing harm to a rapist. Still, how far does it help improve the safety of women? Not much.

What we need is a system in place to make the country safer for women. ‘System’? No, don’t blame it on the government now. They are not to blame (I will show you how). The onus is on us. Yes, you and me.

www.setyoufreenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Stop-Rape.png
(Image Courtesy)

We hear of a rape and we get angry. Blood boiling and all. Good! We have some humanity left, but is that all? No.

Talking about the case of the recent gang rape in a moving bus in Delhi – the reason behind the ongoing outrage across the nation, I am angry too. But, more than that, I am disturbed. I have been avoiding reading about the case, or tweeting about it, or even following it on news channels. Maybe I am a coward, or maybe I am just as human as you are. But, my inside hurts every time I read or hear about the issue.

All I could think I could do was to come up with this post. After someone is raped, your anger can’t help her undo the incident. But, if we stop putting efforts to make the society safer, we can definitely let more girls get abused. This, we do not want. Right? 

Here is what I think can be done:

1. Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp. These are the places where we are before, during and after some psychopath destroys a girl’s life. So why don’t we use this power to make the society stronger! Here’s how – imagine an app, which is linked to FB, Twitter and Whatsapp. You see something wrong going on around you (Domestic violence, rape, sexual abuse for example), and whether or not you decide to confront the culprits physically, you can post a tweet or an FB post or a whatsapp message to some pre-defined number and the app posts it everywhere instantly. Imagine everyone would know it LIVE and people and police near to the location (mentioned by you) can rush to help. Even if a million posts lead to just 2 persons turning up, would it not be helpful? Makes sense? APP DEVELOPERS. WHERE ARE YOU?

2. What we need to do is remain angry. All the time. Yes. Store that anger somewhere inside us, but not let it out at once. We need to let that anger out in bits, every now and then. We need to channelize it towards the cause of keeping the society safe.  (Thank you Paloma Sharma for the idea ‘direct anger towards a cause’ on your blog - http://palomasharma.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/velvet-curtains/)

3. Social Infrastructure

India shining & India rising are all about economic might. This is where we have forgotten how weak we are when it comes to social infrastructure. Maybe that is one of the reasons why we have been a developing nation for decades.

This is right. That is wrong. What will the society say? What will the society think? Hell! We are the society. We must make it stronger, not weaker. Be the strength and support the victims need, not merely ‘an outraging lot’ that forgets their purpose in a few weeks. Remember, how we outraged for issues like Reservation, and then Corruption? Then we forgot it all. DON’T LET IT GO!

4. “A suggestion for Mr Shinde, Home Minister: Why doesnt the Govt put up hoardings everywhere, saying: Rape Strictly Prohibited?” – Pritish Nandy’s tweet. (@PritishNandy on twitter)

You may find it funny, you may find it annoying. I find it worth doing. Hoardings like this can help us remember what we must not forget. This message is not just for rapists, but for the society also.

5. Government? Who?

You see we don’t need the government and politicians for the cause of making the society a better place. We find it easy to blame the government and move on. Let’s say, the government is hopeless, then what?

Those hoardings could even be put up by NGOs or private firms, or even local clubs. The government should know what it needs to do. We, on our part, should know how important our social infrastructure is. If a government fails to establish and implement policies, why vote for them?

THIS IS NOT THE END. 

You can come up with your ideas and share them wherever you can. Or you can even share this post. Do anything to spread awareness. Put an effort. KEEP IT GOING

The following text was added later:

Addition 1 - 

I just sent an email to justice.verma@nic.in suggesting how we can put an end to Rape and crimes against women. Along with the points above I added this one -

Let's have an annual 'Crime against women' evaluation (like we have annual railway budgets) presented live by the "Minister of Women's Affairs"

The performance of the government can be evaluated in this way, and the government will always have a "motive" to improve policies and thereby their own performance.

Things that should be covered in the report:

• Rate of crime against women as compared to the preceding year
• New policies/laws proposed and brought into effect in the current year.
• Status of existing cases of crime against women (Nos. of pending cases closed; Nos. of cases in process currently etc)
• India's ranking on the list of "safe countries for women" and the reason for it's performance, whether good or bad.
• Rehabilitation and support for victims - initiatives and performance.
• Plan for the next year.

 I hope this gets implemented someday soon!

Addition 2 - 

I have come to know that an app similar to what I was thinking of, already exists. It's called 'FIGHTBACK' Go ahead, install it. Be safe.