Hathras-: A Rape by Society

"Another Year; Another hour; Another rape - Hathras incident adds another shame!”

 

Every event happens after some stipulated time period  but “Rape” is such a brutal act that happens every another hour, minute and second.

This case of Hathras Gang rape is not only a case of rape but also an attempt to subjugate the so called low-caste people,

not only to subjugate low caste people but also an attempt to destroy the evidence by forcing an unethical cremation of the victim at 2:30 A.M. without even the presence of family, not only an attempt to destroy the evidence but also to violate freedom of expression and speech of victim's family by smashing Section 144 in the village and not allowing anyone to reach or approach the family.

U.P. Police A.D.G doing best to make mockery out of his department now by making away all the claims of rape by quoting Forensic investigations, may be he doesn't realise that people might by now don't trust their police at all.

This whole tragedy of events should have alerted the higher judiciary(Claims itself to be the guardian of constitution and guarantor of Fundamental rights of citizens) bit unfortunately only Allahabad HC could have sent some summons to UP government  for appearing on 12th October. This display of urgency by the court implicit the actual and real concern for nothing.

What happened at Hathras was and is never about only Hathras and still if we keep demanding public lynching or encounter of the accused, then may be we are not willing enough to solve the root problems as reflected evidently after the police encounter at Hyderabad (2019). Hyderabad still witnesses rape across the city and the local police still lacks proper reforms. This whole feeling of fractured system has almost forced us to talk publicly about doing things out of law (Demanding and celebrating encounter). We should have spared some time into thinking that why that vet doctor didn't believe in calling police helpline at that moment of tragedy, why the police couldn't have reduced the no. Of rape cases in the city and most importantly what changes after that encounter?

Here, I wish to make a point that I am not with the perpetrators of the crime but police encounter is neither a practical nor a judicious solution to any case, rather making our whole administrative setup more lax towards women centred issues.

 

I therefore, request you to stop demanding encounter but proper and fast justice to the victim.

Rape of women by men isn't a politico-administrative problem at large but a socio-economic and century old problem.

• However, Inadequate representation of women in politico-police structure as well as ill-trained/ ill-equipped police force to do proper investigation and evidence gathering can be an administrative cause for these rapes.
• Compromise with the dignity of woman, improper way of parenting about the social/ethical values in home and lack of persistent anger against the rapists is what can be categorised as fundamental and social causes for these rapes.
• An established mindset of male supremacy over females considering the latter as dependent or weaker sex is nothing but promotion of rape culture as a psychological factor. Remember, rape happens outside homes but are inculcated or promoted inside homes by numerous ways, although indirectly.

I am not diving into the politico-administrative solutions for solving this menace but atleast we people can start our bit by atleast not normalizing the sexual inferences towards women be it any stranger / friend / girlfriend. 

Rape of a woman is done by a man, hence a man needs to stop this.

Lugubriously, what happened at Hathras is a rape by 4 men, administration, police, judiciary and the society at large.

Hathras incident needs to be  shown compassion.

                                                                                                                - Abhishek Shrivastava