The crime against woman is something to be viewed from a different angle because is that crime against a woman was particularly because she is a'woman'?, that is the question.
I am not saying that there is no crime. I am not blind.
Crime against woman in general depends upon the culture of a society. There is a Sanskrit sloka which starts' yathra nari pujyanthe .' and so on. This sloka tells you that if you want to see how good is a country or whether it is really developed, you have to look at their woman. If woman is worshipped and if woman is not weeping in the streets then oh! Learned men consider this nation as really rich and lucky.
India is the only country in the whole world where a woman is worshipped in the form of a Goddess. Even in the houses a girl will be worshipped almost like a goddess during the start of some festivals like divali etc., and my daughters do enjoy such a privilege.
Even the feminists accept that women are worshipped only in India and express shock and dismay at the rising crime rate against woman in India.
Many people mistakenly argue that in ancient India women were covered with seven wails and not allowed education on par with boys. This problem of keeping the women behind purdah(curtain) only started with foreign hordes started their raids to rob the temples, rape the woman and take them away. As the time progressed and by the middle ages woman were kept behind the curtain and child marriages came in to vogue particularly because Muslim hordes from Arabian lands who came raiding and finally settled in India as it rulers generally did not touch or demanded a girl as a gift if she was married.
Dowry system yet another crime against woman was started only at a later part of the middle ages and at the beginning of modern age. It was totally absent in the ancient India. In ancient India a girl was given a free choice to choose her husband even among tribal communities. An open contest was generally conducted to justify the selection of the girl but more or less her choice was made even much before the contest itself.
Dowry system has few advantages and lot many disadvantages. The one important advantage is in the absence of dowry the natural selection goes to the most able women with jobs or beauty or both. What about those who are not so beautiful or who may be ugly. What about those girls who can never do a job or who are never educated?
I want to make it clear that I am not supporting dowry system.
The girl has every right to demand a share of the property from her father! It may be very odd and surprising to many that a father( most of them) would not like part with his property and may like it to be retained by his sons with whom he may like to live in retirement.
This is true even among top ranking industrialists let alone a common man on the street.
We shall remember that we are not living in a matriarchal society except among some sections in Kerala.
Indian law strictly prohibits anyone from demanding property from father if it is earned by him and not inherited. A son and now according to new law a daughter can demand only grand father's property which they should share equally with their father.
Crime against woman is increasing that is the most disturbing factor. But population is also increasing and cities are growing at a rapid pace.
When you read at least one case of dowry death everyday and about 2000 rape cases( reported to police) in one year( that is all the states of India put together, Delhi leads the list with 450 cases), you do feel sick.
But the crime rate( for example rape) is still lower in fact it is very low compared to world level crime rate against women when analyzed as a proportion to the population. In a population of 1000 millions, rapidly urbanizing, developing country with a police force of one constable per ten thousand people, the crime rate against woman is neither staggering nor surprising.
What is the most disturbing factor is it is rising! every year.
At the same time we are culturally becoming weak. Many girls and woman do enjoy the freedom of modern India and as many girls and woman do misuse their freedom.
The crime against woman is high in cities compared to villages.
Mahatma Gandhi once said that if a woman can walk alone at midnight without fear then it really means India achieved freedom.
It is true that in villages woman can walk alone at night. And they return from cities and walk alone without fear. This is very difficult but not impossible in cities of India.
Crime against woman can be at many levels.
Discrimination against her brothers even in her own home among her own parents.
Discrimination at work place for example in police force where woman colleagues are generally given soft jobs.
Crime like seducing( forcing a lady to accept for sex with intimidation of dismissing her from job)
Crime like black mailing by breaking her passwords of her mails and intruding in to her privacy.
Crime like pressing her private parts in packed buses or trains and treating her only fit for sex and nothing else.
Crime against her only because she is physically weaker.
Crime against her only because she would grow up to be a woman( killing her in the womb itself by her own mother!)
Crime of rape perpetrated on her not just out of lust but also as a means to insult her.( they publicize the rape later even if she does not report to police)
These crimes and most of them would disappear if we become culturally strong. But who would keep the culture? Who would continue our traditions?
It is the women who continue our traditions.
It is the woman who safeguards our culture.
When the agitations occur, social violence go up, terrorist activity increase, increase of intolerance leading to riots the one who suffers the most is the woman, whether it is as mother, daughter, sister or as wife.
The social disturbance would have woman and girls as its first casualty even if they have nothing to do with these disturbances.
Let us all of us think as to how to empower women.
When a film explicitly degrades a woman and her character let us not see the movie.
When a woman is shown half-naked on huge cinema posters let us tear them or throw tar on them.
If a cinema hall exhibits a film which degrades and insults the conscience of woman world then
woman volunteers and men should stop the viewers to enter the premises.
Let us not patronize such insulting drama on woman.
It is most important to understand that in a culturally weak country woman has no safety.
