Why??

Atrocious. Barbaric. Inhuman. Horrifying. Words fall short to describe the incident which shook the entire nation- the rape, and violent slaughter of a 19-year-old Dalit girl from Uttar Pradesh, India.

What was her fault? Did she excite or entice wearing anything revealing to those men of the so-called upper caste? No. What was her fault then? Let me tell you. Her only fault was that she was a girl, a woman. She had no right to live freely, or to receive education. She should have simply subsisted within the four walls of her house, committing in household chores and never elevating her voice. And she should have got married early and borne multiple kids. Maybe then her life would have been spared today.

Do you think it’s credible? The answer is clearly NO. No matter how women lead their life, in whichever part of the country, women are never really safe. There are sexual predators masquerading themselves and waiting to devour their prey. Rape culture remains unabated despite several amendments.

In fact, now we hear cases of extreme brutality. The general perception is that since the laws have been made sterner, the rapists resort to extreme measures in a bid to destroy the evidence. Not so long ago, a young vet doctor was brutally raped and murdered, another 3-year-old girl in Kathua, the Nirbhaya case, and so on.

According to a study, India is ranked as the most dangerous place because of its high incidences of sexual violence, some of the reasons being lack of access to justice in rape cases, child marriages, female foeticide, and human trafficking. But, the question remains- Is the provision for death punishment a deterrence? If so, then why haven’t murders stopped? Why are women still being gang-raped, why are minor girls being sexually assaulted?

Incidents of such extreme debauchery compel one to contemplate over the reasons behind the growing incidences of such beastly acts. When will this barbarity stop? Have our men dehumanized? Where have we, as a society, gone wrong?

MELANIE