http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/20/police-accused-rape-minor-girl-chandigarh_n_4480187.html
On December 20th, 2013, five policemen were accused of raping a 17 year old girl in Chandigarh. She had called in to settle a dispute with a relative. Allegedly, the man started harassing her over the phone. When she met with them, one of the officers raped her at gunpoint. Allegedly, the four others had raped her over a four month period. The news of this incident did not come to light until somewhat recently, until her bother relayed the information. This pertains to a lot of the issues we have seen surrounding women in India, and reinforces ideas read about in May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons. The five men were arrested, but such an example of justice is a rare one. The girl was too ashamed to come forward, because of the stigma that surrounds the issue. Few would have taken her seriously had it not been for her brother coming forward. But there is a culture of rape present, and coming from a member of authority, this hints at corruption.
In what ways does this article reflect the gender based issues brought about in "MYBTMOAHS?"
What can and should be done to prevent cases like this from happening again? What must be done to ensure action is taken and girls are not afraid to come forward.
Rape and corruption are two issues that are very prevalent in India today. It is very sad that women feel shame about coming to the police for help and that corruption in the legal system prevents them from doing so. Similar to May You Be the Mother of a Hundred sons, women feel pressure to have boys because of the social stigma. In cases of rape, women do not feel inclined to get justice for their cases because of the social stigma that rape has for women. Like the book, women are treated as inferior if they have girls over boys or are raped. To prevent this India needs to rid its legal system of corruption. Legally, India can make as many laws as possible to try to prevent these situations. However, if India never changes culturally and fails to lose these social stigmas, the laws will not be accepted and these issues will continue.
ReplyDeleteThis is sad because May You be the mother of a Hundred Sons was written a few years ago and yet, absolutely nothing has changed as shown by this article. If the people enforcing the law are breaking the law, then there are many changes that India will have to make in order to become a more morally sound country. First of all, they will have to have a leader who cares about these issues and is willing to pass harsh mandates against offenders in order to set an example. These policed officers should never be allowed to work again because of what they have done. In cases of rape, there should be absolutely no second chances. There should also be laws passed to provide support to girls who end up being raped, kind of like an anonymous hotline that can provide moral support and give advice on what to do. Rape should never happen and should be punished severely.
ReplyDeleteI think the Indian justice system and police system need to be fixed and made it so that the trials do not take years, and the police do not take so long to treat the patient. The women in India need to stand up and say what they believe in. To make girls come forward we should implement a rape rehabilitation center for women that suffered from rape. The government need to enforce there laws by making women police and men police abide by the law and make rapists prosecuted in no less then a year. The police system and government is all corrupt and the whole culture believes that men are superior to women and somehow someone needs to change this. It will be hard, but India needs a "change they can believe in".
ReplyDeleteThis article is a direct reflection of how women's rights and voice is being ignored in India today. The fact that nobody would believe a girl if she said she was raped is very disturbing. Also, that if a girl said she would be raped it is shamed upon is hard to think about as well. The fact that they only realized the validity when the brother stated it was extremely frightening. I believe that if the government is uncorrupted than the whole nation will benefit. When laws actually are acted then women will have their rights.
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ReplyDeleteI think that this hanging will cause a small change in attitudes but in the long term it will not yield much change regarding the issue of rape. Most cases in India do not even receive justice so it is important to show that there will be consequences to the action. The only way to fix this issue, however, is by changing attitudes and points of views that exist in the country. Most women are often scared to even report their case because they are afraid of the stigma that they will receive. This mentality needs to change in order for change to even erupt in the fist place. This cannot be achieved fast however but gradually by changing this mentality it will lead to positive outcomes.
This article describes a very tragic situation in India. The situation shows the extent to which India is corrupt in that even law enforcement officials condone this sort of behavior. Furthermore, the stigma surrounding a woman speaking about her rape is terrible. This sort of culture clearly considers women to be goods rather than people and looks at a raped woman as damaged and irreparable. This further reflects on the practice of having a raped woman marry her rapist. This practice also has the idea of covering up the rape rather than punishing the perpetrators. India needs to essentially change the culture and the attitude the people have regarding this.
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