While India expressed outrage and
anguish in retaliation against the horrific crime committed against this
23-year old woman, I found myself thinking about those thousands of veiled
voices who underwent the same violation and had nobody to speak up for them.
This is not the first rape case that's been published in the newspapers nor has
it been the last. Why is it that special attention was given to this particular
girl and none of the other rape victims? Perhaps it is because she belonged to
an age group that has fire burning within them, fire that could be channeled
into the form of public protests and demands for a safer world.
But what about very young children
who are being raped of their innocence? Why were their stories passed over for this one? Who will speak out on their
behalf? It's not possible for five-year olds to organize protest marches! The
entire nation prayed for the well-being of this girl and fought for justice to
be served to her perpetrators…why did we
not do the same for all the rape cases that preceded hers?
Messages were fervently forwarded
which stated details of the case and ended with an instruction to convert all
display pictures into 'the black dot of shame' to show that you were truly
disgusted with the incident. A lot of these messages also falsely claimed that
the girl was dead one day after the incident occurred. I find that several
users of social media are often only vaguely aware of a particular leading
piece of news which promptly ignites anger in them. They then proceed to
declare their hatred and pass it on to the rest of the world as though only to
show that they, too, have an opinion and a (loud) voice without actually taking
the time to educate themselves about the case. If this black dot of shame is
indeed a vehement protest against each rape then perhaps it should have been
the protestor's display picture the moment his/her social networking account
was created.
On the other side of the coin was a
different, more active crowd that took their energies to the streets and
demanded the authorities focus their attentions towards this crisis. It is one
of the positive results of public outrage that leaders have been forced to
ponder over this issue and take action against it. Solutions-some with the potential
to offer relief and some mind-numbingly bizarre, have been suggested. Ordinary citizens have been jolted from their
false lull of security.
While good, these developments are
only small steps towards true relief from a huge problem. I believe we will
come one step closer to the solution of this issue when awareness is spread
across the entire nation's youth and only achieve relief from this heinous
crime when previous victims themselves are no longer afraid of the dark. As
Gandhi once said, "the day a woman can walk freely on
the roads, that day we can say that India achieved independence."
Shivani Naik
II BA- PJOE
