We dwell in a society that advises girls or women to be ever vigilant and not to get raped instead of teaching boys or men to revere women. Rape is the most heinous of all crimes. What happened in Kolkata put even a Taalibani- ideologue to shame. It hung the head of every Indian in disgrace. The society is replete with Duryodhanas, Ravanas and Dushaasanas. But none is ready to be a Krishna or Hanuman to salvage Draupadi’s or Sita’s dignity.
The martyr (Abhaya) was not only brutally raped but also left in a mutilated state. Some famous names in the country made some insensitive statements. It is not just unique to India where goddesses outnumber gods and teenaged-girls are worshipped on Navami twice a year. It is a pan-world phenomenon. No country can be absolved of having committed crimes against women. If we just demonise India of being misogynistic, we will be guilty of not putting other predators in the dock to say the least. If we talk just about India, we are being unfair with women all over the world.
According to the World Population Review data of “Rape Statistics by Country 2020, it is estimated that approximately 35% of women worldwide have faced sexual harassment in their life. It is an understatement as most women experiencing sexual violence hardly report or expose such incidents.
However, according to some national research or surveys, up to 70 percent of women have faced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime, according to the data of the United Nations.
Let’s talk about Nirbhayas and Abhayas of other countries.
Oksana Makar, an 18-year old girl, was gang raped by three men in Mykolaiv, Ukraine in March, 2012.
Her rapists attempted to strangle her after the rape, and later dragged her to an abandoned construction site, where she was set ablaze alive.
A gang named the Black and Whites grabbed Elizabeth Pena and Jennifer Ertman (from Houston , Texas) on the railroad bridge, and raped them for the next one hour. The six rapists in the gang were teenagers, the youngest Vinnie Medellin, being just 14.
The autopsy report disclosed that Pena’s two front teeth had been knocked out, while two of Ertman’s ribs were broken after her death. The report also disclosed that their necks were trampled upon after strangling them to death to ensure their death.
Junko Furuta was abducted by four young adults on November 12, 1988. They then confined their captive in a house owned by one of the culprits, in Adachi, Tokyo.
Having raped her, the four men tortured Furuta for the next 44 days, until she died. The under-trial assailants confessed to have raped her over 400 times, made her drink her own urine, fed her with cockroaches, beaten her, penetrated her with objects including an iron rod and light-bulb, and singed her with cigarette butts. The rapists had also inserted fireworks into her genitals and burst them and severed her nipples out.
Furuta was doused with petrol and set ablaze on the 44 the day.
Anita Cobby, a 26-year-old Australian nurse, was on her way home. She was abducted, dragged through a barbed-wire fence, and raped by Travers and his friends. The autopsy report disclosed that Cobby had been assaulted , kicked and almost decapitated, before her throat had been slit. These acts of brutality were executed in her awareness of this crime.
Consequences of violence against women for the state and the economy
Researches reveal that the extent of involvement of women has a direct impact on the stability of a state and on its economic prosperity. Because of the discrimination and violence against them the involvement of women in many political and economic sectors is severely restricted. Such women who have been subjected to violence absent themselves regularly from the workplace, diminishing the efficiency of companies and harming the national economy.
The UN Resolution 1325 accentuates that gender –based violence is both a serious hindrance to successful peace negotiations and also a menace to peace and stability in the long term. Peace agreements made without the involvement of women or consideration of their requirements will be a failure in the long term.
Children witnessing or experiencing domestic violence are at a heightened risk of depression, low self-esteem, anxiety, and poor school performance, among other problems harming their all-round growth and personal development. Consequently, they are psychologically vulnerable to experiencing or perpetrating violence in future. In Nicaragua, 63 percent of children of traumatised mothers had to repeat a school year and they quit school on an average 4 years prior to other children.
History will keep repeating itself till the youth stops viewing women as a commodity for sexual-gratification. The solution lies with parents and teachers. They have to embed reverence for women in the boys’ pliant mind at the very nascent stage of their lives. The release of filthy lyrics of hit songs disparaging women must be nipped in the bud.
Dr.Ravi Prakash Tiwari is the author of Pun is Fun.