A human rather than women’s issue

‘Rape is… a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear.’ — Susan Brownmiller in Against Our Will. True. All females have, at some time, felt a chill of fear at the thought of rape. But what’s spilling on to the streets after a young woman’s rape is not fear, it’s a cumulative anger at the indifference to the continuing violation of women’s bodies and minds.
There is an outcry for the death sentence . But, if punishment were a deterrent , there would have been no more murders. Prevention seems the answer. But how do we prevent rape and make the world a safer place for women? Specially when we live in a sick society, in which even children are raped, gang rapes are becoming the norm and rapists are rarely punished.
It’s a society in which females are ogled and pawed on the roads, in places of study and work and subjected to lewd talk, all of which is called “eve teasing” . (Our language reflects our thinking . But teasing? For god’s sake, there is nothing playful about something that makes a female feel dirtied!) It’s a world in which porn is rampant , movies titillate with scantily-clad female bodies and even respectable newspapers and magazines carry pictures and “researched” stories about sex, to increase their circulation.
Thankfully, most men are decent humans. And that men are fighting along with women in this agitation-turned-movement , making rape not a women’s issue, but a human issue, is a great step forward.
And some things can be done. Like more policemen on the roads, better policing, brightly-lit streets, women-friendly police stations and policemen. Above all, prevention has to begin at home. By not killing our baby girls. By treating sons and daughters as equals. By teaching sons that females are not just bodies, but thinking, feeling human beings. By teaching daughters not to be afraid, but to be careful. Prevention requires a change in the law ---broadening the definition of rape, distinguishing between degrees, so that the rape of a child, gang rape or any rape that brutally dehumanizes a woman, gets the most severe punishment.
Castration for repeated offenders is an option to explore. But can we trust our lawmakers, who have and continue to treat women’s issues as marginal and trivial, to do these things? Unlikely. Perhaps the best and most long-term solution is for more women to get into power, don’t women form the largest vote bank in the country?
(The writer is an eminent novelist)