The Horror of the Abuse

The last 2 days of TV viewing has been really really depressing. It brings back the horror of the Bangalore incident, where the ram sena humiliated girls by hurling them around since they were seen in a pub.The Guwahati incident was even more horrifying considering this was just a child, a 16yr old class IX student. She was coming back from a pub with a couple of friends and got into a spat with a couple of boys on the street. Her friends escaped the mad mob and the poor girl was trapped. She was molested by 30 men and then stripped. Cowards each one of them, taking advantage of a child. I hope there is enough noise made about this incident to book each of those young boys and men who were happily smiling into the camera while doing so. Its a shame. Watching that clip on TV sent a shiver down my spine. We live here, we call this our homeland and are kids and our women are all under constant threat.

My heart goes out to the child who probably will live this nightmare for so many more days and nights. I pray she and her family find the strength to stay afloat. The one reason other than absolute failure of our law and order these things happen is because men still believe under some cosmic scheme they are suppose to control or discipline women and they can. If this is what they do to girls they don't know, what would they do to their own women folks behind closed doors. That smile, that glee while tormenting a child in public, humiliating her, pulling her hair is so disturbing, I so want to scream out loud. It is absolutely disturbing. Being a bystander to such atrocity is equally horrendous.

This just shows prejudices inbuilt in our country at so many levels over and above the very obvious.

1. What makes boys/men think they can grope and strip a girl in public and look very unaffected by it - Did they think they had every right to teach a girl with whom they had a spat, a lesson. How is this any different than men stoning a women to death in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

2. When a group of boys are at it, why can not an another group step in, stop it. What part of our being lets us watch on as a poor child screams for help. - Are we above all that happens on the street. A mob can get away with anything in India.

To such perverts I ask, who died and made you the custodians of culture, Izzat and women in general. Take a hike guys and just stay there please. Women in India, have all been through men staring at them, men edging an elbow at their breast like they didn't realize, pushing themselves on you in a bus or in a crowd like they couldn't help it. Men baring their stun guns, staring at your breasts, groping in a quiet dark alley if the chance presented is just something we have learnt to expect and look out for. And then, every now and then sexual harassment reaches a new level like this one. The Mumbai new year incident, the Bangalore pub incident and so many more shakes you up. This could have been you. That just makes me think how should I ensure my son isnt one these. A Boy with the right values and who would never join a mob like this. Men who can stand up and do the right thing.

We all know, sexual harassment such as these are not about the dress you wear, or the time of day or night, or the place you were in, or the company you are in, or your mode of transport. No. It is not. It is just because some rabid men decided they were going to have a field day and then found support in a few more who joined them or decided to stay in the background and watch and thus their pack grows.

We as a country need to make enough noise and ensure that none of them are let off. They deserve very severe punishment. Even if they are young boys and have a life ahead of them, if they are let off this time, they and many others like them are only going to be more confident about it the next time. Only 4 of the 30 have been put behind bars so far. I am sure the rest are in hiding thinking, it will ease off in a few days and then they can unleash their ugly monstrous selves back on the street.

This country really fails its girls, young ladies and women. Totally. Its a sad sad state of affairs