An open letter to the Policeman, the High court and above
all, the Supreme Court.
Dear Officers,
So, a four year old girl was raped in my city. The rapists
were the very same people responsible for her safe travel to and from school. They
were arrested. They will be interrogated by you, tried by you and punished too,
sooner or maybe very much later. Meanwhile, the family of the little kid,
friends, and citizens of Pune will protest and voice their anger about the
incident by keeping black display pictures on the social network and march on
the streets wearing black t shirts. And then a few days will pass. And everyone
will put it behind their heads and move on.
I’ll tell you what else will happen. The parents of the little
girl will never get her back. Each of you might have children. Can you imagine
losing them? Also, the classmates of the girl will be told their friend is not
going to come back. And all these girls will grow up, and know the truth then,
and shudder when they look at themselves in the mirror. It could have been
them. Worse, it can still be them. What else will happen? The other parents
will wonder if they should ever let their child get on a bus again. Many won’t.
Mothers will be more scared, fathers will have blood pressure issues. All their
daughters will grow up in closed, safe atmospheres, never allowed to step out
of their comfort zones, because one step out, and there are a million monsters
waiting to punish them for being females. Wait a minute. Oh! This already
happens to most girls, right?
So, all the freedom, education, globalization, liberalization,
westernization, rationality failed to change one thing about us Indians: the
way we look at girls and the way we think about them.
All this, you already know. You are all knowing and ‘taking
all the necessary steps to bring this problem to an end.’ But please let me
suggest to you one last thing that you can do.
Next time you successfully catch hold of a rapist. Don’t give
him to the public to be beaten. He might get killed, but there are worse
punishments than death. Don’t cut out his genitals. He will still have eyes and
hands. Don’t rape him. You are not like him. Oh! Wait a minute again. You anyways
don’t do all that. Anyways.
Just do one thing. Remove his clothes and walk him
throughout the city. You will not be violent, you will not spill blood. But make
this one man realize what it is to lose all his respect and self-esteem. What it
is to have every person in the town, or even country talk about your sexuality,
what it is to lose it, and what it is to live in a society which will never
accept you again as before, will look down at you and even blame you for being victimized.
Make him only realize what it is to be raped in India. Make him regret being
human, make him regret being born.
Punishment is not the end to this. The change of the Pathetic
Indian mind is.
She was four years old. She did not even know what it is to
be a girl. How can you sleep? You are law keepers of this country. If you
decide, you can help end this. Just help change the thinking. Or at least just
do it because you are human. Come on.
-A girl.
