Acts of aggression and rape against women are not unique to any one country.
I would like to think that India, being a country known for nonviolence, will not breed such rapists. Unfortunately that is not the case!
The real question is not if such violent crimes can happen in any part of the world. They do!
The real question is how the country or the entity deals with the issues when they *do* happen and what actions are taken to minimize this from happening in the future.
When a shameful news item such as rape (and let us not think that rape is *just a sexual act*) is reported, the first response unfortunately is to distance the shameful event from casting a shadow on an institution.
The responses by those in charge tend to be to cover up with redirecting the attention of the public elsewhere by the following tactics
- It is an isolated event - unfair to think it happens routinely - How dare you castigate the institution based on few isolated events
- It happens at every other place/country/institutions. We are being targeted and then cite information about genuine issues of being targeted thereby discounting the violent crime and its causes
- Cite statistics to show why it is far worse in other places/institutions etc
- Blame the victim
- Blame the aggressor but do nothing else
If we look at any institution or country the above sets of responses happen invariably.
One can look through records of responses by the various church organizations when the news story about pedophile priests surfaced. Even today the Church has not responded in a satisfactory manner which only shames the church organizations.
Large majority of followers of Islam are silent in the extreme acts of institutional rape by ISIS/ISIL in the name of their religions.
In certain countries Rape has been used as a political weapon and the world has not given a damn to bring about a change. In these countries there are more than million rapes executed to subdue a population.
In USA, recently two women Annie Clark and Andrea Pino have founded an organization called
EROC - End Rape on Campus.
The story is the same. Women gets raped in colleges in large numbers and they often go unreported. The reasons include how the institutions react when such cases are reported which is all about blaming the victim.
These two women, themselves victims if sexual aggression became a lawyer and found an appropriate strategy to deal with the schools and their impotent management.
Most schools do not want to be known for such terrible crimes. Therefore they try to hush up things or do one of the bulleted list of items above. These two women found an existing legal protection (Title IX) clause which is being used effectively by any women against the massive machinery of the schools. This is forcing management of well known colleges and universities to be more accountable that are now forced to take affirmative action to prevent such crimes.
Let us look at why each of the typical responses listed do harm to a society or the entity that is trying to protect itself.
- Such acts of violence are rarely isolated events. There are many systemic issues and human mind is capable of doing terrible things. Such societies rarely succeed being that they breed a system of Adharma as a way of life.
- Strategy of mixing up with other issues (e.g., India being targeted by religious groups which could be true) rarely succeed. The political machinery may think they are justifying lack of action but it never succeeds where it matters in the world stage. Others cannot do any meddling if a country or institutions that are more conscious and committed about upholding justice and Dharma. Reputation of catholic church is much more hurt because of cover up and confusing the issues.
- Citing statistics is for losers only in this instance. If a country boasts almost no rape there is something wrong with their set up. Let me use an example to make this point. The Iranian President when he came to Columbia University (at New York) some years ago proclaimed that Iran does not have gay people. (For one they kill them if they find one.) His statistics actually speaks of an intolerance culture. Similarly if someone thinks India does not have same number of rapes as any other places in the world one has to question how it happened so. There will be insidious reasons for those who care to find out and fix.
- Blaming the victim is the act to protect the institution. Such people cannot be reasoned with and has to be forced to comply. Just like the two women took on all the campuses in USA I hope such men (and it is mostly men) are held to public ridicule in this Internet age
In an open democracy it is not possible to stop documentary like 'India's daughter' from being made by anyone including by a women from England.
In a corrupt country which condones criminal acts of corruption in every walk of life it is not surprising that the producer got interviews that she wanted.
But the above points are largely irrelevant. I hope reasonable people demand concrete actions from all units of their government to prevent and minimize such acts. Police and those put in charge should be put in jail if they failed to act both proactively and reactively. A country cannot eliminate rape but it can do something to minimize them.
For that to happen those in charge of governing have to stop the blame game or go in search of statistics elsewhere. They have to stop the whisper campaign to redirect the attention to mischief by other countries (even if that is true).
The documentary should be released as is in my view. If India wants to put out its version or Indian media wants to produce one of its own that may be a better response.
I hope new organizations emerge like it did to hold the American campus management accountable.
There is no shame in dealing with any matter , however violent, with honesty and integrity.
In the end the main message of this documentary, the one that touched my heart is that a large number of people of Delhi and India came to protest spontaneously for concrete action. Let us focus on this aspect and force the government to act proactively and affirmatively
