India, another epidemic needs your attention
Why are we not on the streets today, showing our support for rape victims; instilling confidence amongst women living in this country, telling them that we will fight for them until our last breath ?
Why are we flipping channels, turning over newspapers and closing tabs on our internet browsers, after we have read about another horrific rape, like there's nothing appalling about it ?
Is it because, we are not human enough ? Are we trying to establish the fact that we are a generation of spineless mortals ? Or is it because, we haven't realized that rapes at this rate could destroy more lives than AIDS & Cancer put together?
It kills me a little inside, attending protests in Bangalore only to find a very thin crowd waving banners, shouting slogans and seeking answers. But then again, for most of us 1-2 protests every 6 months is all we have time for. We are busier than the busiest bee to bother about this 'epidemic'. It's a crying shame, but that is what it will remain for a long
time to come.
So why exactly has rape not yet got ENOUGH attention from us, from every citizen of this country ?
IMHO, us common folk of this ‘great’ nation have concluded that there is not much we can do about anything; holding candle-light vigils every alternate month or spamming our social networks with angry, venomous status updates has lost it’s effect. Our Twitter rants
fall on deaf ears. And we wake up to the news of another heinous crime every single day. We are also well aware that lathi-charge or water-cannons targeting us by the authorities is inevitable, if we take to the street in large numbers.
You might disagree with me on this, but the truth is we have given up on this battle, for now.
It is unfortunate, that today it comes to light that our authorities have stopped caring about us and our opinions. They are no longer concerned about our living conditions. Instead they’re busy with over a hundred scams - our government and its oppositions both, seem to have forgotten about us.
So how do we ensure that we make enough noise to remind our democratic nation that we are, in actuality the largest democracy in the world ? That we as a whole, need to do something, when someone really needs us to stand up for them.
I don't see any solutions, to prevent rapes, being discussed in the legislative houses. And when I do, they are half-baked-historic ideas broken down by spurts of angry politicians not getting their two pence in the limelight. Half potent ideas to punish the rapist topped off with some rather outrageous speeches being made by people who we voted for.
The time has come, to take care of our sisters, mothers and our loved ones ourselves. Because our governments, police force and every other authority has failed us more than once; I predict them failing us, an increasing number of times in the future. We need to educate our children, brothers and sisters about the situation. We need to plan our own vigil.
The least ‘you’ can do, is not to use the word “rape" casually and pass it on like just another abuse. Let's remind ourselves rape is an epidemic and destroys not just a victim's life but denigrates humanity.
