India is respected and adored as a motherly figure by its citizens; even Mr. Gandhi who was the founder of the nation, used the metaphor of mother to define the unity of India. There was a movie named as “Mother India”, which was made in 1957 and that movie also focused on the character of a respectable Indian woman who earned the status and respect among fellow villagers as all of them called her mother. This detail may seem unnecessary but it was required before I could shed some light on the situation of women’s rights in India which is not very promising.
As a matter of fact, long before a girl was raped on a bus in Delhi, when she was coming back from cinema, Delhi was known as the rape capital. This situation is earth shattering as India stands second on the female infanticide stand in the world; however the worst of all crimes committed is sexual assault as that not only hurts the victim’s body but rips apart their soul as well. In India 40% of the women are assaulted by their partners; in West it is a factor known as date rape while 65% of women have reported some kind of abuse. These facts and figures become more devastating when we come to know that in every 26 minutes, a woman is assaulted in India which is economically boosting due to the reason that Indian women are playing their positive role and helping their men in their cause of prosperity and development. Rape is a horrible crime against humanity and in India it occurs every 34 minutes. It has been reported that an incident of sexual harassment occurs every 42 minutes in the Indian territory; while one Indian woman is kidnapped every 43 minutes. I found these facts from a census and human rights report in 2002 and 2003; situation is much terrible now. As per some facts and figures, in 2012, 68 rapes occur every day within in the territorial limits of India.
This lets us have an idea of the women rights situation in India and particularly, an idea of the situation of sexual crimes against Indian women; this is a disgusting reality that men do not know how to give respect to women unless those women belong to them. Rape is such a crime that just cannot be condemned in words; hence stern steps are needed to be taken against those who are involved. Men simply need to understand the concept that a woman is an equal human being and certainly not a sub-human, not at all any personal belonging, commodity or property. We need to understand and respect the concept of the privacy of a woman’s body; we need to hardwire this idea in our sons or younger brothers or cousins etc. that a woman has as much right to have her body without any interference and intrusion as a man has. If we simply learn to understand, admire, respect and protect this doctrine, women shall be safer than ever.
by Nousheen
