“Teaching society the right lesson”- 18 December 2013

What a year has this been – 2013! Last year, on December 16, 2012, Nirbhaya was subjected to hell on a Delhi bus by demons. Since that moment to now, despite all the noises – right and not so right – the larger Indian society has learnt no lessons as far as safety of its women is concerned. On the contrary, the media was carrying all the more items of the hell girls and women were being subjected to. The Government took some steps, mostly half-heartedly, and the society held seminars and rallies and lighted candles. Woman, however, remained insecure – not just on isolated spots but also on busy public places and even at home.

If this was to be the gain of the year since December 16, 2012, then we have gained nothing.
What a sad thought – so benumbing, so frustrating!
All the dimensions of any social analysis are going to be the same – the male dominated society that cares little for its women, the wrong family values, the inappropriate education, the starved males whose eyes keep wandering around for easy prey, the women acting as women’s enemies, the inept policing, the incompetent and impotent administration, the deadpan political leadership….!
Nothing has changed over one year since December 16, 2012.
Why? – I may ask.
There is a definite answer, of course.
Nothing has changed because the woman herself has not changed.
Of course, it is futile to expect the Indian woman to change in just one year when she has not really taken charge of herself through more than a century since Indian society started thinking about women differently. Yet, the thought is sad that the average Indian woman has not changed.
Of course, the average Indian woman will also have so many substantial-sounding reasons to explain why she has not changed, one of those being the dominating men – fathers, brothers, husbands – not allowing her the freedom to change.
This is something very realistic, I must admit.
Yet, one cannot miss the truth that this is only a helplessness we, the women, should have done away with long ago but have not tried enough to do that. We should have tried harder to start taking our share of dominance in the family and the society. If men dominate so much, then we also should have fought back harder in assertion if not in aggression.
The sad part is that we have not tried hard enough to assert ourselves as women as a group. Individually, many of us have done that to a varying degree of success. But that is not enough, which is why our society kept seeing many Nirbhayas in the year since December 12, 2012.
Some of us did shed tears, did some appropriate noises, organized rallies and lighted candles upon reading and watching items about little girls being subjected to hell every now and then. Yet, we, the women, did not start our act of collective assertion.
Let the bygone be by gone but at least now, we should start asserting.
Of course, that assertion is more likely to get the shape of aggression than not. Yet, we should not mind it. All we must do is to get together – all women – whenever a goon tries his tricks even like making obscene or even innocuous remarks against any one of us, and beat up the fellow black and blue, no matter where and when and who is involved. If there is a girl or a woman in trouble, we, the women, must get together instinctively and launch an aggression – physical as well as verbal, and create a hell for the goon.
The moment this begins, we will realise that the society has started behaving almost all of a sudden.
This assertion, or aggression, must be undertaken at all places and at all times – in workplaces, in public places, and in homes and families. Every time, we may not be needed to act physically, though, but that we are willing to act the toughest would be good enough a signal for the society.
Because we have not given such a strong and uncompromising signal, we have continued to witness Nirbhayas taking place every now and then.
So, let us pick up courage not individually but collectively. Then let us see how the society does not learn the right lesson.