Delhi Rape Case: 2 Years Later, What Has Happened?

It has been 2 years now since the horrific Delhi rape incident – a gang rape which claimed the life of a young woman traveling in a bus in Delhi. 4 monsters who violated her, injured the boyfriend and did unspeakable things to her. The entire incident, even to think about it brings in a great pain and shudder to say the least. But here we are today and 2 years have passed.

The question is –

• what has happened now? What has changed? 
• Was it just another case to be swept under the rug of a campaign of clean and safe India?
• Was it a case which revolutionized the way we think? 

Well, here are a few things I can recall from what has happened from then on..

• The convicts were awarded death penalty as they rightly deserved
• Promises were made to increase women safety in the country.
• Promises were made to make public transportation safe.
• There was a hue and cry the first few months the incident happened but the question is – what has happened now?

Here are a few things that have happened:

• UP Cops say Women are to blame for rape – It is always the victims fault! 
• Uber Taxi rape case surfaces a week ago, and it is later learned that this man has been a serial offender.
• Shenaz Treasurywala writes an open letter to PM talking about the rapes and women safety, the letter which was later dubbed as a publicity drive by a lot of critics
• Gauahar Khan was slapped by a man for wearing a short skirt!

And this is just the past two months I am talking about.

I see a footage on TV today,

• There are no cctv cameras on buses,
• 2 women were recently harassed in a bus by 3 people while the rest of the passengers watched as if it was a reality show on TV.

And the list continues and I am sure you get the picture of what I am getting at.

Yes! Nothing much has changed, people still seem to take this for granted, it is treated as a regular occurrence. There have been people who have stood up and raised their voice but somehow that voice doesn’t seem to reach the right ears.

What is the solution then?

Someone said – Impose death penalty on the perpetrators!

But we already have that!

Someone else said – Life Imprisonment

We have that too.

Someone said guilty till proved innocent

People found a loop hole in that too and used it for their advantage.

So.. What has changed? We have all complained, we have all waited for someone to come and change things for us.

Are we not tired? Are we not tired of waiting for someone to come and solve our problems? How hard is it for us to stand up for the crimes meted out against our fellow race? Is it fair that we do not interfere when there is a commotion?

There have been so many cases of public inaction and we seem to be very happy blaming the police for all the things they have not done.

How fair is that? Is our life, our society, the people around us a responsibility of the police? If that is the responsibility of the police – what are we doing here?

I do not mean to demean anyone nor do I mean to ask you to put up a fast in front of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

It is about the little things we can do, it is about the minor disrespects which we stand for!

It is in telling someone that women mean a lot more than mere objectification

It is in telling someone that the same laws apply to men as they do to women.

It is in acknowledging the fact that they are equally good and sometimes better than us when it comes to taking up a  few responsibilities. 

And finally..It is in treating them as human first and women next! It is in the triumph of humanity and not the sex that we have a solution in.. 

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 References:

The Hindu