The Gurugram gangrape

AN aggrieved woman, still struggling to come to terms with the loss of her husband, gathers the courage to pick up the pieces of her life. With two young children to look after, her immediate concern is consolidating all the money their father may have earned. The widow hires an autorickshaw to go to her late husband’s company premises in Manesar, Gurugram. The autorickshaw driver quickly senses her vulnerability as it becomes apparent that she has perhaps stepped out for the first time in that direction. His mind could have worked in two ways: one, to be sensitive towards the lady who is clearly distressed and needy; two, to take advantage of her situation. Guess what? It’s the latter thought that prevails. He, along with the co-passenger, and then later two other men summoned for the purpose, drive her around and gangrape the helpless woman, before abandoning her in a semi-conscious state. 

It is coldly reminiscent of so many such cases that have with horrific regularity made it to the headlines. Despite the ghastly 2012 gangrape and murder of the paramedic in Delhi, sadly, the hue and cry and public outrage across the country against the brutality seems to have had no effect on most men. Notwithstanding the goading of the nation into making stricter laws and a more efficient legal redress system, in September earlier, a teenaged Class X exam topper of a Rewari village waiting for a bus to take her to her coaching class was sedated, abducted and gangraped and dumped. It was again symptomatic of that lack of sensitivity and apathy for a vulnerable single woman going about her routine life. 

Why is it that the environment is not safe for a woman, both from strangers and known people? As is time and again pointed out, the law enforcement and justice delivery systems have failed to deter crime. They even fall short of inspiring confidence in the victims. They suffer twice as the path to justice is often strewn with shoddy investigations and misogynist attitudes of the authorities. Plus, we as individuals, as families and as a society, need to sensitise our boys towards respecting women, so that they grow up as men and not beasts.