Rising statistics of crime against women and
children is a pointer to the abysmal lows our once great civilization has sunk.
Rot has set in; almost everybody is raising their voice. But it occurs that we
are missing the point. We are beating around the bush; reluctant, or I would
even say shy to confront the vexed problem head on. Responses of our activists,
politicians, and even the media borders on the extremes. On one hand they
clamor for barbaric punishments for the offenders, and on the other hand they hold
women responsible. As if chopping off the genitals of a rapist or confining women
indoors after the sun set will solve everything; it’s just a dystopian
illusion. What is required is a change in our perspective towards women, and
our so called sense of morality.
We have become too rigid a society. People can’t
stand a boy and girl walking together. They will invariably stare at you like
you are some criminal. Hooligans doubling up as self-styled moral police men
have the audacity to harass and even beat up young couples. We find people
ranting that in our culture, sex is taboo; something that should not be
discussed outside the four walls of your house. But is that really so in Indian
culture? Indians had always considered sexuality as divine. Be it the Shiv-Shakthi,
sensually erotic paintings, and sculptures adorning our ancient temples, or even
the great literary work, Kama Sutra; we were confident and proud of our
sexuality. But unfortunately today’s India reminisces of the Victorian Europe,
laced with even more regressive influences of Islamic rule. While the modern
world has embraced the ancient Indian wisdom about sexuality, we are still
stuck with the hypocritical Victorian moral code, enshrined on Indian psyche by
our brutal colonial past of subjugation. Unfortunately there is no
ratiocination on the matter either by media or even the intelligentsia.
What we need is a change in our entrenched
attitude. Imparting sexual education, and organizing workshops on ethics for
our youth is a must. Moreover, we need to open up about our sexuality. After
all, it’s the most primal of our desires. Students after adolescence should be
educated about their sexuality in a gradual step by step manner. They should be
taught to respect their body and the opposite sex. Unfortunately, Indian
adolescents are mostly left to fend for themselves in this crucial phase of their
life. They don’t know what to do with their feelings and urges; they don’t know
what is right or wrong. Generally parents and teachers are very reluctant or I
would say too shy to discuss the topic. Leave alone adolescents, even a
significant proportion of 20 something’s in this country have shockingly little
knowledge about sex or sexuality. Only avenues most of them have to garner bits
of information are grainy porn clips and yellow magazines, which paints a
dubious, and distorted picture of sexuality in their impressionable minds. This
has to change. Of course, the government has been making some attempts, feeble
though, at imparting sexual education to youth. But, unfortunately, they have
mostly wilted away under pressure from religious zealots.
The brutal Delhi rape shook India’s conscious.
Though more heinous crimes had taken place and still take place here, the
middle class resonance and media spotlight transformed the gruesome incident
into a national tragedy. The enormous buildup made it our moment of catharsis.
Government’s hands were forced into taking some action. But apart from knee
jerk reactions, we are not addressing the root cause. We are just going for
superficial solutions, paying only lip service to rising concerns, while
betraying a fierce loyalty to an outdated moral etiquette . This is best
evident from a recently admitted PIL in the honorable Supreme Court of India
for making watching porn a criminal offence. This is just ludicrous. We are
boxing ourselves to a corner here. Though highly unlikely, if such a law ever
comes into force and is implemented in letter, a vast majority of our young,
and not so young population will have to be incarcerated!!. Is this our silver
bullet to prevent crimes against women? Then I am afraid that we are seriously
deranged, and retarded as a society.
So what is the solution? Sugarcoated attempts to
further stymie the liberties of women in the name of their protection is a
strict no; for it is nothing but patriarchal chauvinism. Crime against women is
closely related to the level of education in the society. In an educated and
exuberant society, women are mostly respected. The most important thing is to
spread awareness. We must educate people. We must encourage parents and
teachers to be open to youngsters on the matter of sexuality and engage them.
Coming to pornography, of course child porn should be severely dealt with.
Pedophiles repeatedly downloading child porn should be put behind the bars.
Coming to regular 'legal' pornography, government could try to ensure a higher
premium for such content to discourage minor users, though the effectiveness of
such a step is in question in this age of torrents, and deep web. Further, I
don't imagine Indians paying money for media content, be it movies, music,
games or porn.[ 97% of OS, and other software we use are counterfeits; You may
have noticed how gaming companies and Hollywood Studios have drastically
reduced the cost of their wares in India, to somehow entice us to go for the
original]. Nevertheless, effective measures to alleviate poverty and to empower
women will go a long way in protecting the dignity of our women.
Now coming to the most vexed topic of them all,
prostitution. Should it be legalized? Most of us are not even comfortable with
the topic. Even those who strongly feel that prostitution should be legalized
is afraid to air their view openly as it would be ‘politically incorrect’ to do
so. Stigma associated with prostitution is a bit too much to confront. But,
whether legal or not, prostitution thrives. Sex rackets traffic young women and
children and force them into the flesh trade. They are brutally exploited and
violated. They can’t go to the police or any other authorities as they are
virtually non-entities for the powers that be. The money paid by pleasure
seekers is mostly tunneled away by the cartel leaving them just enough to
survive. They are just treated as a commodity, thrown to dogs when their youth
fades. And, they are left to fend for themselves, with no means to earn their
bread and staring at social ostracization.
Legalizing prostitution will enable government
to effectively regulate flesh trade. Trafficking of innocent women and children
will come down drastically, provided government agencies show some will. Also, the
prostitutes will get at least a semblance of dignity and there will be an end to
their ordeal of brutal subjugation, and exploitation. Further, they will get
the deserved monetary benefits for their work, and will also help control the
spread of sexually transmitted diseases as health and fitness certificates will
become mandatory. It will also help people to release their pent up sexual
energy safely; sexually aggressive behavior, and frustration will tone down
considerably making women much safer. We should also remember that prostitutes
were not looked down up on by ancient India; rather they were given a position
of relative dignity. So it’s highly desirable that the nation gets into a
healthy debate about the viability of legalizing prostitution.
Finally as a nation, we should learn to respect
women. The stark reality that we have come to this, is a gross injustice to our
great, ancient civilization, which taught us to worship woman as Para Brahman,
which translates roughly to supreme deity/soul. We have to stem the rot, and
for that the authorities, and the public should work in tandem. We must strive
to find lasting solutions rather than go for knee jerk reactions to satisfy the
collective consciousness of the society. For that we have to go back to our
roots. Twenty first century is said to belong to India. As we restore our great
nation to its past glory, and exuberance, let’s not forget to restore the
dignity of our women.
