RIP ! Humanity…!

While we all have ushered in the New Year with new hopes, aspirations and promises, I still can’t stop thinking about the rape victim who died 3 days back. My heart nearly sinks to even imagine the forty minutes of horror and 13 days of desperate battle for life thereafter, that ended in the early hours of Saturday when the woman breathed her last in the Singapore hospital. I just shudder to think of what atrocities the woman must have gone through in the ghastly incident that eventually ended her life. She fought courageously in fighting for her life, for so long against the odds, but the trauma to her body was too severe to keep her alive. She succumbed to serious injuries to her body & brain leading to multi-organ failure. Her death has awakened entire nation on the increasing number of crimes against women’s and their safety. Ever since protests are held in every state to show solidarity to this movement, demanding justice. Even NRI’s abroad are protesting, showing concern & solidarity with this ongoing movement.

This ghastly incident has made us find our voice and we won’t clam up! Damini is dead! Long live she! Like any other girl, she too had so many dreams twinkling in her eyes. She wanted to live her dreams and aspirations. She didn't want to be a martyr, but she lost the battle! Yet in her fight for life, and in her surrender to death, she has become the voice of the multitude. The incident has awakened and called upon the collective conscience of people who have made a faithful engagement with a cause: making India safe for womens. We can’t allow her death to go in vain. After years of being treated like a herd, we have finally found our voice. Those in power are bound to listen, and listen they should! This is the power of democracy. What we are experiencing now is no less than a revolution. People on the street irrespective of their age have become part of a larger cause. The nationwide outpourings of grief and anger are not merely bubbles of discontent that can be picked; it proves the ground reality that is bleak and scary. If women continue to be stalked, groped and raped, we have no right to call ourselves human beings. We have lost humanity and have turned beasts, but again to call rapists and molesters beasts, we should refrain a little, ‘coz that would denigrate animals, who too follow some code of ethics.

The government is scared of the rage on the streets. It’s time for it to act, and act it will, we will ensure that. Without resorting to violence and without spilling blood on the streets, we will have to stand guard to this cause and movement. However deep down in my heart I feel, only exercising stringent measures, and increasing the number of policemen will not help in curtailing the crime against women’s, the issue is much deeper than that. However much we say we are a society of equals, it is a farce. As a culture, Indian women are viewed as inferior. Things have to change at the basic level, which involves education and gender sensitization. Mentality needs to be changed, in order to bring in equality in the real sense. Merely blaming a woman for wearing provocative clothes or blaming her to be out on the street at the wrong time will not serve the purpose. Every person has the right to live and breathe, and we as humans should not infringe on this basic right of anyone, be it men or women.

This incident has angered, appalled and ashamed me and at the same time has made me conscious of where are we heading? Do we really behave as humans? And if so why have we turned demons for our own friends, siblings and relations? What values did our parents instill in us and what are we doing with it? So many questions and the answer lie all within us. Let us hope and pray such things never ever happen and our humanity never ever be questioned again, ‘coz death of humanity is death of our conscience! Live and Let Live!