Empowerment

We have all been deeply affected by the brutal “Nirbhaya Case-December, 2012”. On a cold, mid-winter night, a bunch of rabid animals did something that shocked the country as well as the entire world. Within minutes, India was the centre of all the media hype and attention from all over the globe. People from all over the world, initially, under a fit of disbelief, called it a one-of-its-kind incident- something that would change a few things forever. Yet, they were unaware of the fact that it was one of the few cases that actually got registered as most of them do not. Our all-mighty society places the stigma on the victim herself and the family decides to suffer in silence. This might not be completely true for urban India. There have been much worse cases in the past that did not have the luck of getting the media attention of this magnitude.

However, within 24 hours of this unfortunate incident, there were three more cases of similar magnitude and gravity in different parts of India. It was like the people, who submitted their very existence to the whims and desires of their carnal needs, decided to go on a rampage, thus adding insult to the injuries of an already humiliated and violated India. Then there were our esteemed politicians who were found addressing large herds of lambs who devoted their complete and undivided attention to them. There were, of course, genuine attempts by genuine people to educate the common masses and bring them under one roof to completely eradicate this kind of brutality from the society. I, myself, was over-whelmed by the chain of events that unfolded and decided to get to the root of all this commotion by understanding the psychology of a person convicted of instances of violence against women.

According to my research, most of the convicts were victimized, either physically or mentally, by their relatives/parents (in some cases they were even sexually abused in their childhood by neighbours or someone close to them) and were subjected to random acts of violence throughout their childhood which was nothing short of traumatic. Burning in the fire of retribution, they grew up into the most violent and sadistic criminals ever with a conscience incapable of experiencing guilt. They went on committing crimes one after the other until they were finally cornered by the authorities. When they confessed to their crimes, the authorities were amazed to find that the crime for which they were caught was not their first. In fact, the reason they were caught was that they got a bit too casual while committing those acts. Most of these perverts were remorseless when asked about those heinous acts. There was a reason to this too. They had a tendency of objectifying women as they were brought up in an environment where females were considered to be less of human-beings. They think them to be mere objects of lust and it is ok to treat them that way.

Is there a way to change all these and to make sure incidents like these never happen again? Yes there is. The only way to make it happen is the empowerment of women by society itself. For instance, they should do away with irrational and baseless notions about women as the strongest of the men are born to a woman. Our society worships Goddesses; should not they let their daughters/sisters enjoy the same position as promised to them by the Vedas? Who are they to judge anyone, let alone a victim who has suffered at the hands of someone who is part of the society itself? There are various measures taken by the government to empower the fairer sex.  But as we can clearly see they are just not enough. What is the most probable reason? It is the mentality and the mind-set of a few that dictate terms on the rest. Hence steps should be taken to change all that. People should be made aware of the fact that women, by no stretch of imagination, are inferior to men.  There should be a change in the attitude and the way the society looks at them. Radical examples should be set to discourage violence against women.  Once these steps have been properly implemented and executed we would, very soon, witness the dawn of a new age where women are safe again. For that we have to be the change! I would rest my case with the following words:

Remorseless conscience

Degenerated thoughts

There they were, the hated:

Amidst the deluge of martyrs

Innocent pristine Chaste

Prying eyes; potential prey

Stalking the trustful angel;

Unaware, on a midsummer day

 Unknown was the feel of touch

To the impotent abominable souls:

Contemplating their next moves

Slithering towards unholy goals

Shadows failed to ambush the weak;

As the Beauty turned ethereal

Rising over the weak perverts

Akin a mighty Tsunami surreal

Transformation; larger than life:

They witness the cosmic empowerment

Her blue eyes; no longer scared:

They were liberated; like herself

Predators and their heinous karma:

Their terrified eyes say it all

Hunters; haunted, finally, hunted

By the Demigoddess on the prowl

Saharsh Sahai-SCIT-MBA (ITBM)2013-2015