Trigger Warning: This article contains information that could be triggering for some people. Reader’s discretion is advised.
It’s been a month. A month that was spent in agony and reflection. As the details of the RG Kar incident shook the nation, the enveloping cry for change brought a glimmer of hope that maybe things would change this time. Maybe not another one of our fellow women will have to suffer a similar fate to become a wake-up call for a country where women have never really felt safe.
The details of the rape-murder case of the Kolkata doctor were gruesome. But all rapes are gruesome; we just don’t hear about them enough. Or perhaps we do, but they are reduced to a notification that pops up every now and then. But, like the 2012 incident, this one caught our attention. And for a while, it became the only thing one could talk about.
So, how far have we come? Well, just last week, there was this news about a Madhya Pradesh man who became a bystander and filmed as another man raped a woman on a footpath. He then circulated the video. It was not just him. There were many others who chose to watch the rape, rather than intervene.
This is one incident. In the past month, there have been a series of new rape cases from all across India that made it to the mainstream media because we were paying attention this time. In fact, within a week of the Kolkata rape-murder case, we heard about a dalit minor who was allegedly gang-raped and murdered in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur. Her body was found in a pond.
Another 22-year-old woman in Tamil Nadu was gang-raped near her house by her friend and his accomplices last month. A teenager was allegedly gang-raped in a bus at the Interstate Bus Terminal. A 21-year-old BBA student was raped by a motorist in Bengaluru. A minor dalit girl was raped at her house by a 57-year -old man in Uttar Pradesh.
No, rapes haven’t stopped. We hear about them more now because we’re paying attention. But, for how long? That rage is dissipating, and those news headlines are focusing on how Ambanis celebrate their festivals. Every now and then, there’s also an update about the RG Kar incident. About how the accused says he’s framed, about his polygraphy tests, about the food he eats in the jail, about the college principal’s fraudulent activities, while justice remains a distant dream.
Not to say that people haven’t been angry. In fact they have been so angry that their aggression has taken a voyeuristic turn. The pictures of her dead body surfaced on Instagram sharable story templates last month. The point was to spread the word, the point was insensitive and missing.
But what would justice really be in this case? Hanging the accused alone? Is eliminating a part of the problem a solution to the entire problem? In the past month, we also spent Independence Day, only with a tinge of irony. One-half of our country isn’t free. Their freedom is curbed by society on an everyday basis. Then they also live in fear. It looms large because you have to be vigilant all the time because you may never know who will attack you when and where. And when you’ll complain, it’s your own character that will be dissected. They will tell you that you should demand justice but do it the right way, don’t put it on all men.
In the past month, so many women have felt heartbroken and hopeless, and then they have tried to carry on with life as one always has to, hoping the collective rage would lead to some change, any change. But then, a rape is recorded and circulated and not enough people are protesting about it and not enough people know about it.
So, if I come back to the previous question, whether things have changed?
No, but our anger has subsided.