We should have zero tolerance for violence against women and kids

Two recent incidents in two different countries one here in Newtown, CT, USA,  and one in New Delhi back in my home country India, both incidents left me sad and disturbed. In the first incident, 20 innocent 1st graders lost their lives at the hands of some insane young kid who got access to guns easily and used them to execute this heinous crime. In a second, equally gruesome act six men gang-raped an innocent girl in a moving bus on the streets of the Indian capital New Delhi. The girl was not only gang raped but badly beaten with blunt objects and is battling for her life as I write this blog. 

Both these incidents raised many questions. First, are we failing to protect women and kids from the danger they face from such erratic behavior by some senseless individuals? Second, are our personal and political beliefs more important than our social responsibilities like protecting the lives of innocent civilians? There are many questions like these and I wrote my concerns about gun policy in the US in my last post related to the first incident (shooting inside a school in Newtown). Along with the gun law society's attitude towards mentally challenged people should be improved, and more resources should be made available to them to deal with their mental health. Problems like this don't have only one reason or solution. We have to look at all angles associated with it and try to act accordingly. If we fail to do this then incidents like this will keep on occurring again and again in some form or other and after every incident, we will engage in the same debates, the same deadlocks, and the same conclusion that something should be done, but no one knows what that 'something' is. These issues need to be discussed and debated openly. Only through proper discussion and consideration of all aspects we can expect to find any solution to these problems.

The second incident related to the gang rape is equally disturbing. It's also not the first case of this type of crime. New Delhi is on the verge of getting labeled as a 'rape city' of India where incidents of crime against women are becoming a regular event. It seems that statistically one rape case is reported every 14 hours in Delhi alone and we are only talking about reported cases here. After looking at these numbers it clearly seems that there is no fear about the law and punishment associated with rape or sexual harassment. They are pretty dam sure that they can run away from the law or if get caught they can escape using loopholes in law or after lengthy trials in Indian courts if at all they get convicted they can get away with very lenient punishment. All this is happening in a country that claims to respect women and worships female goddesses like Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Durga, and many others. In reality, our society has drifted away from even normal standards of treating women with dignity or equality. The country where female idols are worshiped is slowly becoming one of the most unsafe places for women, so ironic. 

Where did we mess it up? What is responsible for this scenario where female idols are worshiped but living females are humiliated and insulted on streets, in homes, and other places. The physical and mental trauma associated with any sexual abuse is terrible, and surprisingly in India, we don't have very strict laws to deal with these types of offenses. One can easily get bail in all cases related to sexual abuse. Very recently I saw an episode of the reality show KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati) which Amitabh hosts on TV where they showed a victim of an acid attack, Sonali Mukherjee. Her story was horrible, but the brave lady survived that attack and is still fighting to get justice and the most horrible part was the culprits who committed that crime are roaming free in society (they are out on bail). This raises a few very serious questions about the way law and order machinery works in India. Why we don't have strict laws to punish these criminals? If we already have proper laws in place then why they are not followed in many cases? How these culprits can get away in many cases with very minor punishment (if at all they are convicted)? Why do victims have to wait for so many years to get justice in these types of cases? If there are loopholes in law then why can't lawmakers work towards removing them? In India parliament has amended the constitution so many times for so many reasons, isn't any form of violence against kids and women in strong enough reason for them to sit and discuss another amendment?

We as a people and society also have to think about this issue. When are we going to say enough is enough? In many of these cases, it was noticed that common people hesitate to offer any help. They just witness the crime as mute spectators. They think it's not their business to interfere. When are we going to change this mentality? Why common people are still scared to contact the police department? In cases dealing with child sexual abuse also situation is very pathetic. Very few cases of child sexual abuse that actually happen get reported to the police, very few of them manage to reach the court and only a small percentage of them result in actual conviction.

I received a very hard hitting post on my Facebook wall I am going to share it,

You stay silent when your mother is treated like shit by your father,
You stay silent when your friend takes dowry from his wife's family,
You stay silent when your classmates sits at a nukkad whistling 'maal' at passing women saying it is innocent fun.
You stay silent when a million women every year in this nation are murdered before birth or their breath dunked in milk before god after it, 
You don't report the drunkard husband who beat up your maid servant because it is not your business, 
You stayed silent when your boss hit upon a female colleague and you told her to grin and bear it because it happens everywhere, 
You sing along with your favorite male stars as they call their 'items' chikni chameli and halkat jawani etc., 
You stay silent when our police and paramilitary gang rape tribal and lower caste women and shove stones inside their rectum saying that that's an aberration of the system,
You did not protest the lower pay that your female colleagues got just because of their sex, 
You helped your parents arrange a marriage for your sister against her wishes saying she doesn't know her mind,
You stayed silent when in a family discussion a woman’s voice was silenced by the cacophony of male voices, 
You force a woman to wear burqa in the pretext of sharia law or justify their domesticity because some asshole called Manu wrote some asinine laws hundreds of years back, 
You think feminism is shit and feminist loud mouthed 'bitches' who have not better work to do than cry victim,
You applaud as Hindu right wing men barge into a hotel and slap ‘immoral’ women with the intention of ‘reforming’ their ‘maa’ ‘behen’
You stay silent when females in a party are sent away to discuss 'childish' things even as you discuss 'important' things like politics and all in their absence,
You stayed silent when your father directly and sarcastically showed your mother that she's lower then men in intelligence time and again,
You objected loudly when your girlfriend, wife wanted to put her life and career ahead of yours saying yours was more important,

And now suddenly you have become a man because ONE woman was brutally beaten and raped while you conveniently forget the hundreds of women whose psyche you were responsible for brutally beating and raping directly, or indirectly through your inaction... and now you evoke the same 'maa' and 'behen' argument to protect them... 

Thanks to the serpent of your awakened manhood, that woman in Delhi will perhaps get justice. But what about the millions of other women in the country of different religion, region and sect united by their shared injustice who will perhaps never get justice precisely for the same reason - your manhood?

This message is like a very tight slap on our faces. If this doesn't make us think then I don't know what will. Perpetrators of this particular crime and any such crimes should be punished severely so that people will think multiple times before engaging in any of such acts. We should have zero tolerance for any type of violence. We worship many Gods, and there are many religions out there that teach love and compassion towards our fellow humans but seldom it's practiced. Now it's time to practice all these teachings of love and respect in real life. Let's show the same compassion and love towards everyone around us that we show towards our loved and dear ones regardless of their gender, age, race, or nationality. Maybe one day we won't need any posts like this, any messages like this, and let's hope that day will come very soon.

Thanks for reading please share your views on this topic.

References:
1. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/gangraped-in-moving-bus-girl-fights-for-life-in-delhi-hospital/article4208833.ece 
2. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2174288/Sonali-Mukherjee-Acid-attack-victim-pleads-justice-let-die.html
3. Story of child sexual abuse victim who bravely fought legal battle for six years to get justice,
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/girl-gets-justice-after-a-longdrawn-struggle/article4216829.ece