The Great Indian Circus...

Since December 2012, The Indians are everywhere: Infact the eye candy of the international media on several issues first it was brutal and unfortunate gang rape case of Nirbhaya, then Life of PI in Oscars and again the inhuman cowardly act of rape of a 5 year old in Delhi.


Indian media along with their western counterparts created a huge hoopla around the first and the latest issue and it was covered across the world and even the Prime Minister had to answer some awkward questions on his trip to Berlin on safety and deteriorating law and order situation in the country. 

While I am totally in favour of the harshest punishment for the molesters and rapists, I fail to understand why this sudden attention towards India and why renaming Delhi as the Rape capital of the country. These heinous crimes are taking place all over the country and infact across the world. Still I am flummoxed by the gravity of the international attention on these issues.

After contemplating for several days (yes I require some time to think and come to some conclusion, I am not Einstein) I figured out that people in western countries and even small APAC minnow countries can tom tom about women rights and safety per say of the women.

Here are some facts from the report by amnesty international which will open our eyes:

• Women aged between 15 and 44 years of age are more at risk of experiencing rape and domestic violence than cancer, motor vehicle accidents, war and malaria (World Bank, 1993).
• At least one in every three women, or up to one billion women, have been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in their lifetimes. Usually, the abuser is a member of her own family or someone known to her (L Heise, M Ellsberg, M Gottemoeller, 1999).
• Up to 47% of women report that their first sexual intercourse was forced (WHO, 2002).
• Up to 70% of female murder victims are killed by their male partners (WHO, 2002).
• In 2003, at least 54 countries had discriminatory laws against women (UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, 2003).
• 79 countries have no (or unknown) legislation against domestic violence (UNIFEM, 2003).
• Marital rape is recognised specifically as a crime in only 51 countries as far as information was available (UNIFEM, 2003).
• Around 20-70% of abused women never told another person about the abuse until being interviewed for the study by World Health Organisation (WHO, Geneva, 2002)

Compiled from Amnesty International resources

The data clearly shows that the condition is somewhat the same everywhere and finger pointing on one particular country is not fair.

I am not for a single moment saying or trying to justify the action of some of the perverts who are responsible for these acts and am a firm believer of capital punishment to stop this nuisance. What I am trying to tell you is that because of some perverts you cannot categorize the entire country into the same bracket.

India is number 10 in the top 10 countries with the highest crime rates, US and UK top the list followed by Germany France and Russia and this is the first time that I am somehow relieved to find India at the last in hierarchy.

We have ups and down in our personnel lives and so has a country, but as a true citizen we need to fight back against those who are trying to sabotage the reputation of our motherland just to feel superior.

Again I feel that the need of the hour is not to criticize but to enforce strict laws and to sensitize the people to improve not only their attitude towards women but about society in general. The need of the hour is not to take advantage of the situation for political/social ambitions but to come up with a real solution to increasing crimes against women.

I hope that people, especially those living out of India, should mind their own business and start cleaning their acts rather than criticizing India and its people.