I have been following the news of the flurry of rapes and other atrocities that's happening in West Bengal on a daily basis for the past few months. Being a cynic grumpball my reactions to these headlines ranged from disgust to disappointment to depression and finally rage. This rage is not directed personally to the people committing these crimes. It's more like a geeky Bourgeois rage because I fail to understand what makes these people behave like they are doing now. I can merely speculate.
I have seen a few types of reaction to these stories.
1. She should have known better (than wearing those clothes; than being in that place at that time etc).
2. She is lying (purposely to destroy the guy's life; it was consensual and then she decided to use it against him).
3. It's all staged by some political party. She is lying again.
4. She is promiscuous anyway so it's not a serious violation of her dignity.
5. Why is the government not doing anything, especially when the chief minister of the state is a woman?
You might almost say that I should not expect anything else because after all our society is a patriarchal society. So it is only expected that male members will do what they can to dominate the women folks and keep them in their place- a dehumanized species - almost like livestock - to be used and abused as the "owners" see fit. Had I belonged to the Taliban school of thought, I would probably have learned to live with it. Female foeticide, domestic and public abuse, dowry killings - everything would make sense with that frame of mind.
Except they probably don't take into account that with female foeticide they are skewing the sex ratio against themselves so that there are less and less number of women around as siblings, friends or wives (look how I dare not say partners). Some people have started calling it "gendercide" and the effect is already showing I think. Remember the movie "Matrubhumi""? Sensitive Bengalis who have stuck around and managed to read so far would scream in protest that we are not living in a Taliban-ruled society. It's a democracy and there is a government still in place blah blah. Especially it is "Bengal" - the seat of intellectuals and visionaries, not some shanty town in the middle of nowhere.
This brings me to the point. A group of social network activists have already been prolific pointing out how every case of rape is a governmental failure. They hint at how these incidents reflect the ineptitude of the new government in Bengal. I hope these people have an understanding of how a government functions. They sound like they do, especially when they have been at it for approximately 35 years. I remember the once Chief Minister Jyoti Basu said "these things happen all the time" regarding rapes. he just didn't add "Meh" but that was the attitude (also probably because yankee slang was not a part of his vocab). Our new greenhorn CM has announced monetary compensations instead. That too in a state where you always hear how the government is broke and up to its eyes in debt. Given the rape statistics in Bengal I have a feeling that this is gonna cost her some serious amount of quid. Not the smartest move.
But looking beyond that, government's job is to legislate, administrate and arbitrate. Please look up these words in a dictionary. You could also check the wiki-definition of a government. Maintaining the law and order is one of the aspects of its duties, sure! Please raise your hand now if you have ever SEEN a government. Just like you haven't seen a demand curve or a Higgs-Boson, a government is unseen because it's a concept or a set of rules that define a state's policy. So if you think about it, law and order is maintained by the CITIZENS with or without the uniforms. It's impossible to police every person who lives within our state boundaries and even the thought of doing that is insane. So this is probably the time the citizens of Bengal take up the responsibility of changing their mindset unless they want to live in this dysfunction.
Rapists and abusers have families too. There may be one in your family right now - you may or may not know about it or you may be living in denial. Deal with it! Along with teaching your girlchild how to be safe, please teach your boychild how to behave in a society. Please don't raise your kids, irrespective of gender, like entitled douchebags. You will be doing them a service, forget about societal contribution. It's as simple as stopping yourself from littering the streets and and practicing good personal hygiene. You haven't ever blamed the government for your own dirty underwear, have you? Why would you now??
I have seen a few types of reaction to these stories.
1. She should have known better (than wearing those clothes; than being in that place at that time etc).
2. She is lying (purposely to destroy the guy's life; it was consensual and then she decided to use it against him).
3. It's all staged by some political party. She is lying again.
4. She is promiscuous anyway so it's not a serious violation of her dignity.
5. Why is the government not doing anything, especially when the chief minister of the state is a woman?
You might almost say that I should not expect anything else because after all our society is a patriarchal society. So it is only expected that male members will do what they can to dominate the women folks and keep them in their place- a dehumanized species - almost like livestock - to be used and abused as the "owners" see fit. Had I belonged to the Taliban school of thought, I would probably have learned to live with it. Female foeticide, domestic and public abuse, dowry killings - everything would make sense with that frame of mind.
Except they probably don't take into account that with female foeticide they are skewing the sex ratio against themselves so that there are less and less number of women around as siblings, friends or wives (look how I dare not say partners). Some people have started calling it "gendercide" and the effect is already showing I think. Remember the movie "Matrubhumi""? Sensitive Bengalis who have stuck around and managed to read so far would scream in protest that we are not living in a Taliban-ruled society. It's a democracy and there is a government still in place blah blah. Especially it is "Bengal" - the seat of intellectuals and visionaries, not some shanty town in the middle of nowhere.
This brings me to the point. A group of social network activists have already been prolific pointing out how every case of rape is a governmental failure. They hint at how these incidents reflect the ineptitude of the new government in Bengal. I hope these people have an understanding of how a government functions. They sound like they do, especially when they have been at it for approximately 35 years. I remember the once Chief Minister Jyoti Basu said "these things happen all the time" regarding rapes. he just didn't add "Meh" but that was the attitude (also probably because yankee slang was not a part of his vocab). Our new greenhorn CM has announced monetary compensations instead. That too in a state where you always hear how the government is broke and up to its eyes in debt. Given the rape statistics in Bengal I have a feeling that this is gonna cost her some serious amount of quid. Not the smartest move.
But looking beyond that, government's job is to legislate, administrate and arbitrate. Please look up these words in a dictionary. You could also check the wiki-definition of a government. Maintaining the law and order is one of the aspects of its duties, sure! Please raise your hand now if you have ever SEEN a government. Just like you haven't seen a demand curve or a Higgs-Boson, a government is unseen because it's a concept or a set of rules that define a state's policy. So if you think about it, law and order is maintained by the CITIZENS with or without the uniforms. It's impossible to police every person who lives within our state boundaries and even the thought of doing that is insane. So this is probably the time the citizens of Bengal take up the responsibility of changing their mindset unless they want to live in this dysfunction.
Rapists and abusers have families too. There may be one in your family right now - you may or may not know about it or you may be living in denial. Deal with it! Along with teaching your girlchild how to be safe, please teach your boychild how to behave in a society. Please don't raise your kids, irrespective of gender, like entitled douchebags. You will be doing them a service, forget about societal contribution. It's as simple as stopping yourself from littering the streets and and practicing good personal hygiene. You haven't ever blamed the government for your own dirty underwear, have you? Why would you now??
