ALI SUKHANVER

What an achievement for India. They are now the number One rape nation of the world. Congratulations for achieving this honour. Well done India.” These were the comments of Richard Kong, a reader of the Sputnik International. On 3^rd of this January Sputnik International published a story with the title, ‘New Year’s Mass Sexual Assault of Women in India’s Tech Hub Causes Outrage.’ This story was about the incidents of ‘mass-molestation’ on the new-year night. Personally I didn’t like these bitter comments of Richard Kong.

Whatever happened there in Bangalore on this new-year night is no doubt a blob of shame and disgrace on the face of the whole of Indian society but it would be unjust to accuse whole of the Indian nation of being a ‘Rapist Nation.’ Moreover rape is not a very infrequent and rare practice in the Indian society. Every year hundreds of women are raped in India and there are so many rape cases which are not reported to the police.

Due to corruption of police and judiciary and because of a loose administrative system and selfishness of the BJP politicians, now people of India have started accepting this evil practice as a routine matter. But for the negligence of the Indian politicians, Indian judiciary and the law enforcement agencies, whole nation must not be dragged into a blame game.

According to a report compiled by National Crime Records Bureau ‘Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. Only in 2012 more than 24,923 rape cases were reported across India.’ The report further says, ‘According to 2012 statistics, New Delhi has the highest raw number of rape reports among Indian cities, while Jabalpur has the highest per capita rate of rape reports.’ From 2012 till today the ratio of rape incidents in India is rapidly increasing. Most of the cases are so painful in nature that they receive widespread international condemnation and protest.

One of such cases which were internationally condemned was the gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a public bus, on 16 December 2012. According to the media details the victim girl Nirbhaya, 24 years old, was travelling in a bus with a male friend. The attackers first severely beat her male friend with an iron rod and then gang-raped the girl.

Later on the same rod was used to penetrate her so severely that the victim’s intestines had to be surgically removed. The unfortunate girl couldn’t survive because of the injuries and died thirteen days after the incident. If it were some other country than India, the culprits involved in this brutality would have been hanged till death at some public place. But the BJP politicians are so non-sense in their approach and behaviour towards such immoral incidents that their statements do nothing but enrage the people. After the mass-molestation incidents on this new-year night an Indian minister provoked outrage by saying ‘it all happened because the victims were ‘dressed like westerners’.

‘In 2012 the total number of reported rape incidents was 24,923. In 2013 the number increased to 33,700. In 2014 there were more than 37000 reported rape cases’, says a detailed report published in  the Indian Express published on 30^th June 2016. In another analysis Amnesty International says that Indian authorities have not effectively implemented new laws on crimes against women.

The majority of rape cases still go unreported. In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s India, the problem, instead of abating, has become worse. If we count all sexual offences against women in India, the total number enters the range of three million per year. These offences include attempt to commit rape, assault on women with intent to outrage their modesty and insult to modesty of women.

For instance, in 2014, more than 337922 cases of crime against women were reported in India. In March 2016, The Daily Beast of New York published an article with the title, ‘What’s Really Behind India’s Rape Crisis’. The article said, ‘India and China both have a surplus of males, but only one country has an out-of-control rape epidemic.

In India every 15 minutes a woman is reportedly raped. Multiply that by 24×7, 365 days a year. And keep in mind the majority of rape cases still go unreported. The statistics on crime against women are even worse: Every 2 minutes, a woman in India is a victim to a crime.

In the light of all these analysis, reports and assessments, it seems almost illogical to raise a hue and cry and express bewilderment on rape of a girl on the eve of new-year night in the streets of Bangalore.

But there is another very astonishing rather shocking fact that in spite of all these bitter realities India considers itself the most suitable country which could be the leader of South-Asia in near future. I don’t know who is going to drag India out of this world of oblivion.