“Beauty provokes harassment, the law says, but it looks through men’s eyes when deciding what provokes it.” (Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth)
In recent no confidence motion debate in the lower house of the Indian Parliament – Issue of women safety was raised by many political parties. International rating agencies declared India as the most dangerous country for women. Whatsoever Indian government said about the rising power of Indian passport across the world- it is also an undeniable fact that women are absolutely unsafe in this country. News of rape, molestation, eve-teasing, castings couch and sexual violence with minors is very common in news papers, media reports and social networking sites.
Who is responsible for this rising menace? Many years back, there was an incident of rape in Gurgaon (Gurugram) when a taxi driver raped a young girl at night. That young girl was in shorts and walking across the pedestrian pathway around 10PM. Police Commissioner of Gurgaon released a statement for girls not to walk at night. Suddenly, whole issue was turned from rape of a young girl to the statement of Gurgaon police commissioner. Lots of feminist movement activists raised this issue in the media against the police commissioner for his patriarchal statement.
I wrote to the editor of a leading online news media network about the incident and my statement was – “we should understand also that there is something which motivates a man to do such heinous act irrespective of his awareness about the consequence of such act if caught”. Thereafter I was attacked by many comments portraying me patriarch and supporter of the rapist. I tried to clarify my statement in many ways but all was in vain. I told them neither had my statement accusing the girl for rape nor favoring the accused. I was just asking the prerequisites which drove a person to do such heinous act. We never do fruitful debates on this issue.
Rape & woman safety is a social issue and it should be addressed under the existing social fabric. If women safety is in danger, our social fabric and educational system needs to be studied. A conscious mind knows 7 years rigorous imprisonment or capital punishment for the rapist under IPC but one day the same mind forgets everything and becomes a rapist. What motivates him? Urge for sexual intercourse is quite natural with age – it is important for progeny also. Rape is also a form of sexual intercourse but in section 375 of Indian Penal Code – a sexual intercourse is converted into rape under 6 various circumstances:
- Against her will
- Without her consent
- With her consent, when her consent has been obtained by putting her or any person in whom she is interested in fear of death or of hurt.
- With her consent, when the man knows that he is not her husband, and that her consent is given because she believes that he is another man to whom she is or believes herself to be lawfully married.
- With her consent, when, at the time of giving such consent, by reason of unsoundness of mind or intoxication or the administration by him personally or through another of any stupefying or unwholesome substance, she is unable to understand the nature and consequences of that to which she gives consent.
- With or without her consent, when she is under sixteen years of age. Explanation.—Penetration is sufficient to constitute the sexual intercourse necessary to the offense of rape.
Sexual urge should be strong enough to dominate our whole conscious understanding about the consequence of rape; later a search will start for the prey & without any consent and will of the girl – crime will happen. Recent raping of a married woman at Panchkula in Haryana by 40 men is another example of rape by putting the woman under intoxication for 4 days. Abduction, rape and murder of a minor in Kathua (Jammu and Kashmir) & rape of a 9 year old in Unnao (Uttar Pradesh) created horror in our mind.
We as a society helped to create such uncontrollable sexual urge among our people. We never created any healthy environment for our kids to understand the alchemy of this science. We made woman a commodity and an object for enticement. We can watch porn on our mobile phones but cannot discuss sex with our teacher or parents. We can see nude woman on internet, magazines or movies, but we never raise any question on our curiosity to see any woman nude. We learnt to show shyness in front of our parents if any television program show intimate scene but we didn’t learn why to show such fake shyness at that time? Our society closed every door of sincere information about sex – the most potent natural urge among human beings. We still have TULSIDAS in our mind who teaches us to beat woman because she deserves that treatment.
In my opinion, many a time’s rape is a cathartic reaction. We have suppressed sex so much that it erupts like volcano. We have created separate lines for both genders in schools – but failed to create harmony among boys with girls. Feminism indeed was a good concept for equal social, political and economical rights for woman, but we can see enmity also between both sexes as a consequence of such movement. Why co-existence is not a question for us? Predicament of patriarchy and feminist viewpoints created difficulty in understanding the natural instinct of both the sexes.
We still have no productive debates on TV news channels and media reports on this sensitive issue. We still have not any useful social research on rapist that how jail term affected their approach towards women after completing their sentence under section 375 of Indian Penal Code? We cannot enforce ancient and useless social norms in this globalized world where information flows faster than we think. We need to revitalize our social knowledge in afresh prospective. Ideas are welcome…
जैसे,क्रोध,प्रेम, दया,करुणा ,संवेदना मुलपर्वतियाँ हैं वैसे ही sex(कामवासना)भी एक मुलपर्वर्ती है,और मुलपरवर्तियों को कभी नष्ट नही किया जा सकता है ।ये सब मनोवज्ञानिको ने भी माना है, मगर इनकी दिशा बदली जा सकती है, ये हम बच्चों को नैतिक शिक्षा के द्वारा कर सकते हैं।जो इस देश में नही दी जाती है, यंहा तो नैतिक शिक्षा के नाम पर रामायण ,महाभारत पढ़ाया जाता है।शिक्षा के द्वारा हम बच्चों को बता सकते हैं कि,इस समय अगर आप ये काम करोगे तो उसका ये परिणाम होगा।कोई भी काम करने का एक उचित समय होता है,और उसी समय पर वो काम करना चाहिये और उस काम के करते समय दूसरों का भी हमे ख्याल रखना है ,की हम कोई ऐसा काम तो नही कर रहे जिससे हमें और हमारे सगे संबंधियों को शर्मिंदा न होना पड़े।ये सब हमे बच्चों को सिखाना होगा।तभी जाके नैतिक मूल्यों का विकास होगा और वो अपना अच्छा बुरा सोच पाएंगे।इस देश मे तो ये सिखाया जाता है कि हम ऊंचे है, हम हिन्दू हैं इसलिए किसी दलित, मुस्लिम बच्ची ,औरत के साथ रेप करना हमारा धर्म है वहां तो रेप की खबरें तो आम बात होगी।इसलिए बच्चों से फ्रैंकली व्यवहार करो उनके नैतिक मूल्यों का विकास करो।अच्छे बुरे का ज्ञान दो तभी समाज से ये कुरुतियों को कम किया जा सकता है।
Only accusing hindus for rape is just showing your low intellect level. Is rape an extincted phenomenon in other religions?
श्रीमान शरत जी,
आपकी बात सही है की हमारे देश में अन्य विकसित देशो से तुलनात्मक रूप में बलात्कार की घटनाये कम है और आपकी इस बात से भी मैं सहमत हूँ की विकृत मानसिकता वाले लोगो को इतने बड़े सामाजिक ढांचे में खोजना भी मुश्किल है लेकिन आपको यह भी मानना पड़ेगा की हमारे देश में प्रतिदिन सैकड़ो घटनाये ऐसी दर्ज होती है जो नारी अस्मिता के विरुद्ध है| शादी के बाद होने वाले बलात्कार की घटनाओं पर सुप्रीम कोर्ट का दखल विचार देने लायक है|
जहाँ तक लेखक के नज़रिये को मैं समझ पाया वह सिर्फ बलात्कार नहीं अपितु हमारे मन में व्याप्त हर उस विचार के कारको को जानने की कोशिश करना है जो नारी सुरक्षा के लिए खतरनाक है| प्रतिदिन छेड़छाड़ इत्यादि की अनेको घटनाये प्रमाण है|
मानव स्वभाव बहुत ही विचित्र है। परंतु किसी भी स्तिथि में वह कोई भी काम चाहे अच्छा या बुरा अकेला करने से डरता है। अपराध और बुराई की तरफ तो आकर्षण तो होता है परंतु वह आकर्षण केवल तभी बन्धन बनता है जब व्यक्ति की संगत बुरी हो और उसका बाकी का सामाजिक तानाबाना कमजोर होता है।
हमारे सामाजिक व पारिवारिक मूल्य व स्तिथितिया बदल गई है। हम एक छदम आजादी व स्वतन्त्रता की चाह में अपनी सुरक्षा को दांव पर लगाते चले जा रहे है। खुलेपन की व स्वतन्त्रता की हमारे हिन्दू धर्म मे कोई कमी नही है। वात्स्यायन, अजंता एलोरा, कामसूत्र जैसी कृतियां इस देश की सांस्कृतिक धरोहर है। परंतु इन सब को समायोजित करने वाला समाज व परिवार अब नही है। लड़की व लड़के की थोड़ी कम उम्र में शादी कर देना और उनका गौना उनकी यौवनावस्था में करना, एक युवक व युवती को उसके सामाजिक व पारिवारिक ढांचे से बांध कर रखने में सहायक होते थे। उसकी जगह अब समाज के विद्वान उन्हें Sex की शिक्षा देने की पैरवी करते हैं। साथ मे नैतिकता का पाठ भी पढ़ना चाहते है। फिर उसे स्वतन्त्रता भी देना चाहते है।
एक एक दो साल का शिशु अपने आस पास की हर वस्तु को उठाकर सीधे मुह में रख कर देखता है। यदि उसे ध्यान से न सम्भाला जाए तो उसको बिमारिओ का कितना ज्यादा खतरा होता है। या यूं कह लीजिए कि मन की जिज्ञासा व शरीर की आवश्यकताए समय पर विवेकपूर्ण तरीके से पूरी हो तो सिर्फ़ मानसिक बीमारी ही एकमात्र दोष शेष रहता दिखता है किसी भी व्यक्ति के संभावित पतन के कारणों में।
I was reading a very Good effort of the writer on the highlighting the most violent issue of the day…RAPE…
BUT very much amazed that a very common point has not been even touched by the writer of human tendencies and its erroneous possibilities.
In a society of males with a number around 70 crore,if 10 to 20 thousand rape cases are found than what is the chances of male go wrong with a woman blinded with his uncontrolled sexual urge.
It is very much possible that 1 person among 10000 male may be found more fascinated towards sex which may lead to him break the settled social frame. He may need to be medically treated to check himself to behave as a dignified male as his fellows. But question arises how to identify such a person among our society. We do not have such a system yet through which we tend to find out such unlawful minds. Whereas we must have to have such a system.