Fight against Rape – A pitch

In a land where every possible crime is committed, having laws, be it strict or lenient is not going to solve anything. The ones who are not going to commit crime are anyways going to stay away and the ones who would are going to work things around it.

For example, Terrorism, perhaps the most severe punishments are served against such acts but has that stopped or minimized Terrorism ? I guess the answer is NO. So, why hasn’t stringent laws deterred random youth, in few cases educated youth from flirting with such draconian activities ?

I like to believe that a mind of a criminal is lot more complicated than a regular guy. Especially, the ones who commit one after elaborate planning. And statistics reveal that a mind boggling 97% rapes are committed by people known to the victims. Which means we can safely presume these were planned and executed with clinical precision. Now, that is alarming. So, the next logical question would be how do you stop such planned crime against women ?

I know many a suggestions and recommendations are doing rounds, each one has an opinion, few strong, few confused and few contradictory. Take for example, a news channel was talking about having more police around Malls, Railway stations, Bus terminus and other crowded areas meanwhile, another TV channel was lobbying for more protection is isolated areas since, they’re the places a lady would be at highest risk ( makes sense to me ).

Here are my set of recommendations,

1. Install Surveillance Camera’s in every street. Especially, ones which are isolated or far away from police stations or police chowk.

2. Permit shops, malls, establishments etc to be open 24X7, 365 days. Let the city never sleep.

3. Instead of distributing ‘Aakash’, the stupid tablet. Divert those funds to provide combat training & if possible some local variant of pepper spray for the female students.

4. Of course, the laws need to be terrifying, I mean just chemical castration or 30 years imprisonment won’t do, it has to be something more torturous & lethal that would send shivers down the spine. ( I understand human rights violation and all, but do these criminals really deserve such rights ? )

5. Movies & other mass media platforms need to reinvent themselves, when was the last time you saw “women” portrayed as a women in the Cinema,, my guess is ‘Mother India’ way back in 1957. After that it’s either bullshit or regressive. We need stricter guidelines for mass media, female folk deserve better representation.

6. Women need to lift their game. If you want an equal standing, rise to it. Do not expect some man to respect you if women folk themselves are looking down on you. It’s not done at all. I don’t like the campaign which says ‘ Don’t ask your girls not to go out, teach your sons not to rape’ . Well you’re a mom or a sister to someone, why don’t you go and teach your folks. I mean stop blaming men for everything, look into your own world & fix the issues.  I recommend a massive overhaul, a steady and sustained educative campaign to empower women.

7. As SRK put it ‘ I am so sorry that I am a man ‘. The biggest losers in this shameful process are the Gents. Raping or molesting a girl is an act of insanity, just terrible. We really need to revolutionize the way we treat our women. I know this is not going to happen in a month or a year or even in decades but it’s time to push for change. 50% of India’s population is under the age of 30, which means we have a sizable population which can be taught the right stuff at the right age. It’s in the governments hands to impart sufficient knowledge & sense of empathy to the budding minds. Again a humongous task, difficult but not Impossible.

Fight against Rape

The recent gangrape and subsequent death of ‘Amanat’ has led to widespread outrage in India, and rightly so. Crime of this nature has been rampant in India especially in Delhi, NCR. Naturally, the heat is on the government and in a certain manner on Gents.

I don’t want to trivialize the crime, the criminals deserve extreme punishment but at the same time I take a cautious look at the other side of the crime.

The question I would ask is if my house got robbed, whose fault is it? Is it the robber’s because he derives cheap thrills by looting others? or Is it police’s because they didn’t provide enough security in my locality? or Is it mine for not doing enough for keeping my house safe and out of bounds against theft ?

The point I’m trying to make is if I’m cognizant of the fact that I live in a crime prone area and still leave my house unprotected, then how can I blame a robber for targeting my house ?

However, in the case of a rape, the situation is lot different. But, my point is the onus is also on the women to protect themselves, for it is impossible to police & offer protection to every lady in the country. Even if the force were doubled or tripled such crimes are in every likelihood going to continue.

So along with trying to teach manners to an entire generation of men, equal effort must be put in to educate women folk to fight and in way predict potential scenarios. Some random stat says that 97% of rapes are committed by someone known to the victim. And it baffles me that the victim in most cases might have never figured it out that she is targeted by that person.

Women need to be sensitized about various means to tackle such scenarios and be well equipped. It’s not about carrying pepper spray or wearing modest clothing, it’s more of attitudinal change which would allow them to judge people & scenarios which can lead to disaster.

This is just an opinion, as long as women feel safe and such crimes end, I’m in support of ANYTHING & EVERYTHING which can get us to that juncture. Let me know your thoughts.

Chennai Police

The other day my good friend Arvinth made a comment on Chennai city’s relatively risk free environment for women. Today’s TOI issue confirmed his statement – Click here to read more . Chennai ranks 34th amongst 35 major cities in crime against women. For a city with over 70 million population that’s is quite an achievement.

One of the main reasons is, Chennai is culturally more tolerant and conservative. There are no bandhs, no strikes, no road roko, no public rallies. It’s like people of Chennai refuse to get carried away by hysteria ( The left might say we are not united ). There’s no major chaos barring the traffic. Even the terrorist don’t seem to take a liking for Chennai, that’s is where the next biggest reason for Chennai’s safe city status lies- The Chennai Police

Chennai Police is a subset of Tamil Nadu Police department which is apparently headed by a lady – Ms.Letika Saran. Unlike most states TN police is most well equipped in terms of artillery, Intelligence , Infrastructure ( They even got a cyber cell to curb cyber menace ) and manpower. By the way check out their swanky patrol vehicle, cool right.

To top it up lot of cops are being trained at Scotland yard, APD and World Police Academy ( Now that makes me S**t in my pants, I have given up my dreams of robbing a bank long ago..spare me you lovely cops ). With these well trained cops on vigil, we can feel a lot safer and secure. Yes, there is crime in our city but we also have one of the best Police force in India. Cheers to Chennai Police.

Animals after 1900hrs

“Aajkal ke ladke saat baje ke baad janwar ban jaate hai” ( Guys transform into animals after 7pm ) it came down as a slap on my face. I was in conversation with my B-School buddy when she made this statement in sheer disgust.  She poured out her heart about the annoying filthy men who passed lewd comments, made aggressive physical contact and hoot at her in public transport. She stayed like 10km away from the campus and usually commuted by the local bus. She went on to describe few of her harrowing experiences in Delhi city post 7pm, poor soul was clearly shaken as she put up a brave face. This was way back in 2003, that little conversation is deeply etched in my mind especially her teary red eyes.

In the last several years Delhi’s reputation has taken a severe beating and become extremely infamous for atrocities against women. A recent news piece in TOI confirmed its notorious status, Delhi is now India’s rape capital. National crime reports bureau says, Delhi alone accounts to 40% of rapes in urban India. By the way Delhi is the capital of India, what a shame.

Having lived in Delhi for considerable amount of time, I would blame the culture or should I say lack of it for miserable moral and social standard of men. It’s not that all Delhi guys are rouges ( One of my best pal was born and brought up in Delhi and he is an absolute gentleman ) but anyone who has lived there can tell you the difference. Out there for some strange reason women are not seen anything more than an object of pleasure, partly women are to be blamed for having let themselves down. However, it’s the men who have stooped to bottomless low. Makes me burn in rage -Aren’t we supposed to protect our women? Aren’t we supposed to show love and affection to our women? Aren’t we supposed to treat our women with dignity and respect? Why this crime? Why this shameful act?

It pains me to say, things are not going to change, perhaps they would only get worse unless and until government steps in big time with radical amendments. However, for me the biggest game changer would be EDUCATION. We have already lost it with our current generation but education and awareness can bring about a steady change with the future generations. I sincerely hope the world would change for the better. Having said that, it would be a humongous challenge.