Men are by nature carnal beasts, and in general physically stronger, their is a Philosophy that human beings by nature aren’t what society defines as Moral. Which means, my answer for how to stop rapes in India will be different and requires patience to understand.
We need to understand that sexual violence, in most cases perpetrators being men is not going to get solved totally ever as you can’t completely ensure that all men will follow the basic guidelines of morality and not let their lust or in some cases fetishes drive their action, however it can be reduced and that won’t happen by following Sharia Law as some people are sharing, death penalties are a deterrent, but not enough for a barbaric practice to be a rule of law.
When I say that I mean, the aim of our legal system should be reform, improvement in society, death penalty is very permanent which takes out the possibility of reform, Yes, I get that in the rarest of rare cases the collective consciousness of a society is shaken by a heinous act, and that’s a grey line, but in general having a law that’s so permanent goes against the basic principle of reform and humanity, what if someone gets wrongly implicated?
and data says the countries which have no death penalty, like most European countries, have the lowest rate of sexual violence or any sort of crimes, then why this obsession with middle east and beheading people? and one needs to understand the reason why crime rates against women are lower in these Arab Nation is because its very tough to prove a case of Sexual abuse, as you need witness in a lot of Arab Nations and secondly they’re dictatorship.
The point here is that, there’s no statistical model that confirms that such cases will decrease if we become “barbaric”, unless we inherently believe that Europeans are more ethically reformed and on a higher pedestal of humanity.
Why People Rape in India?
So, why people rape in India or why we see rapes more frequently than any other country? We need to understand the causes behind such acts and why it doesn’t happen as frequently in more progressive European Nations, and its not too tough to see the pattern.
The major causes of rapes are:
- Perversion/Lust
- Hate Crimes
The first one is difficult to control, specially if Family members are involved, but the second case is a by product of Socio-Economic state of a society, a lot of cases happen where men who commit such acts are from the depressed classes, poor men working long hours with no way to fulfill their desires, they get a chance and acts as predators, and then in most cases try to justify their acts by saying, its the Woman’s fault for moving around so late at night, decent women don’t roam around late at night.
Inequality in opportunities can make men justify their actions using such concepts of morality that patriarchy has taught us. The other cases of Hate crimes which is very common, specially in cases of Mob Violence is the hate for a religion/caste/ideology.
Recently on a TV show, a former member of armed forces justified rape for rape, It was disgusting, however the bigger problem was that he was so confident of being right that he openly asked the people present to vote on it, and there even women who justified his actions, and that’s what Hate crime does, even till now there are people who keep bringing KATHUA case in every argument to shame those who SPOKE against the rapists, that’s what hate does, it colors your vision.
How to Stop Rapes in India?
Hate crimes happen more commonly in a mixed society rather than a society where people have similar culture and background. Now that won’t change so the best we can do is educate people.
When I say Education I don’t mean Academic education, or even moral education taught by parents or even some schools, we need to teach kids empathy, we need to teach them to learn about different kind of culture and people living in India and make them appreciate and understand the importance of celebrating differences, and not just through books but through actions, however even that’s not enough.
It’s the teenage years when a kid is awakened to his sexuality, the problem with most Indian parents is that they’re too afraid of discussing anything related to sex, its a period of transformation and that’s where you need to be guided the most, most kids are surrounded by either their parents, teachers of friends, to learn about such concepts from your similarly young friends doesn’t help much, they’re themselves exploring what to do with their urges, they hide and watch Porn or read magazines, or watch films, they’re too ashamed to even talk to their elders, and this is the period where you need to teach them concepts like Respect for women and the importance of concept, growing up in patriarchal families isn’t the best way to learn how to respect women, and in India that’s how society works, at least in most families.
That’s why its the Schools which need to take the lead, Parents see their kids grow up from babies to young adults and will always have a bit of conflict discussing such matters(even though they should) but Sex education in Schools should be MANDATORY, its Important that Kids have a teacher who is more than willing to listen to their stories, their issues, their fetishes, their sexual choices and explain them what to do, this can’t be done via just class teachings, all students of classes 7-9 should have individual sessions with these teachers other than the regular classes, different days for different students so that the kid can develop a trust in this person. We can’t take the risk of letting the families take care of the kids(which is absolutely necessary), however we can educate and explain to the kids the importance consent and things like that.
And for that to happen we first need to ensure we not only have every kid in School(till at least 14 years of age) but also have teachers who are emotionally and intellectually capable of handling such students without judging them.
All of a sudden things won’t change, and no matter how much we love equality, its not safe for women out there and yes parents have a legit reason to feel afraid, but in the long run the only way to decrease such cases is by ensuring that girls know the difference between good and bad touch(by anyone) are empowered and given enough mental support to speak up, and guys from an early age know that Consent is the most important part of Sex, and women roaming around at night or drinking or partying or wearing body hugging suit are not immoral and immodest, its just a choice they made, like they did by wearing skinnies or drinking beer.
The only thing that separates us from being savages is education, its about time we get that.
Note: This post has been taken from Facebook from the timeline of Zafar Rizvi.