Disgrace

 

“For the perpetrator, rape lasts just a matter of minutes. For the victim, it never stops.”

― Fredrik Backman

The young woman's rape at her workplace has shaken the nation. Work is supposed to be a safe space, a place where you to stay back if the weather is not conducive outside, or a late night call makes travel home risky. Workplace is where we spend the longest hours of our day, sometimes even more than our homes. It is therefore shocking when that safe space is snatched away. Outrage is a natural reaction. She is one of our own, could be your daughter or mine, very close to home, we feel the burn under our skin. We are stunned, horrified. A doctor, no less, has been raped and murdered in the most gruesome manner.  An dominant caste, Hindu girl from a middle class, respectable family - just like your and mine. Totally unforgivable, of course we need to come out on the street and demand immediate justice.

The crime is real and of astounding proportions. However, the reason why we are protesting so hard is a slippery slope. Should we not protest? Not demand justice? of course we should. Should we delve a little deep and remind ourselves of other girls assaulted in other safe spaces? 

Yes.

There should be conversations around all kinds of work places, public spaces, safe spaces for women. The fact that this narrative time and again mentions the profession as noble, lofty and hence requiring dire consequences for the perpetrators is triggering. the candle march and the road protests (unless they are by her fraternity - doctors) should be inclusive. The narrative should be that of a young woman's horrific rape and murder at her work place. The narrative should be of how the powerful have the impunity to silence people who refuse to be cronies. The narrative cannot be niche, it cannot be just about a doctor in a hospital.

Some cases in point from the recent past :  (from reports in public domain)

• Eleven men who were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008 for the gang rape of Bilkis Bano (she was pregnant then) and the murder of her family members in 2002 were released this week from a jail in Gujarat. A Special Central Bureau of Investigation Court had sentenced the men to life imprisonment in 2008. Their release seems unjust and the subsequent celebration of their release by some is revolting. Not many, however were seen on the roads protesting. Maybe it didn't hit home, it wasn't one of us we thought. We ignored.

• A week before International Women’s Day, a court in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, released three men accused of the brutal gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras in September 2020. The court dismissed the rape and murder charges against the three despite the victim naming her assailants in her dying declaration. Significantly, the accused men are powerful upper caste ‘Thakurs’ while the victim belonged to the historically underprivileged Dalit community. A few of us took to the streets, most of us felt, such incidents don't happen to girls from respectable families.

• In June 2018, a nun accused priest Franco Mulakkal of rape, alleging that he raped her 13 times between 2014 and 2016 while visiting a convent in Kerala’s Kottayam district. Three additional women have accused the bishop of sexual misconduct, but the superior general of the congregation insists that the bishop is innocent. Mulakkal’s request for a leave of absence from both his job as Bishop and pastoral duties was accepted by Pope Francis on September 20, 2018. There is no country for women, and that sentence rings loud and clear here.

• On May 27, 2014, two young girls were gang raped and murdered in Katra village, Budaun district, Uttar Pradesh. CBI concluded that there was no gang rape after a long investigation, and the suspects were released. The POCSO court, however, rejected the CBI closure report on October 28, 2015. The next big news overshadowed this trial. No follow up, no marches for justice.

Today the newspapers carried this, I feel ashamed. Not only do we not protest the rape and brutality of minorities in our society, we refuse their solidarity when they extend it to us. Disgrace is the only word that comes to mind.