The recent "gang-rape" incident brought tremendous amount of anger, anguish and sense of helplessness to most of the people across the country. It also led to many questions to each one of us on what needs to be done to prevent this.
The initial outburst was to "give death penalty" to the 6 accused people and to create fear among the others not to do it. The view is absolutely right as fear prevents human beings from do heinous acts. We fear pain and miseries and that is why we pray to God. We pay taxes because we fear that Tax Authorities may catch us. Most of us try to earn and not steal because we fear that if we get caught while stealing, we will be punished by authorities. Thus, sense of "fear" should be placed in the accused minds to ensure they don't resort to such heinous crimes.
But in my view, many more steps are required to prevent such incidents. Most of the social issues arise from society's own structural setups. There is a deep sense of divide in the name of religion. Each religion followers think his religion is superior and hence, whenever he gets the chance to downcast the other religion, he does that. The very same way, "Gender Inequality" is a big issue which is prevalent in almost every family and household.
We have seen in almost every household that Women are treated badly. The kids, especially boys, watch the head of the family (usually their father) dominating his mother, wife, sister and daughter. Thus, gets the sense that it is the right way to treat women. And when he grows up, he tries doing the same with his wife, mother, sister and daughter.
So the very first place it needs to be stopped is in our very own household and ensure that kids while they are growing up should be taught to treat everyone - younger / older / any gender - with respect. Teachers in schools should also play an active role to monitor the kids who are aggressive or abusive in nature and take corrective action at the very first place.
So by taking steps early, majority of social issues can be handled. The law can only prevent when something is exception. But when we all know that domestic violence is so so common now a days amongst Indian families, any law in the country cannot enforce discipline.
So change begins from within us. I am sure if we are able to change our mindset and start treating women like any other human being, such crimes would not happen at all. Let us pray for the girl that she survives not just the body but also the mental and social trauma that will haunt her in the days to come...
