To undo the rape

Much outrage has been created via facebook, whatsapp campaigns, water canons have been fired, street protests have been held but, nothing has helped eves from getting teased and molested all across the country. There is no unidirectional approach to curb this heinous crime against women.

Much has been written about the psyche, the attitude of the criminal; how the western culture is a bad influence on ours and how there should have been a slower transition towards modernity. The rift between the two Indias is noticeable and how we should speak up and spark the change.

Nobody however seems to think about how rape and sex are two totally different things. I have read and also believe that rape isn't mere sexual frustration. It's a direct form of physical violence with the prime agenda being establishing the supremacy over the other person. Males think of themselves as the higher, more powerful of the two genders and consider it to be the duty of the fairer sex to bow down to their order and whims. They learn this at their homes where mothers get slapped, elder sisters and bossed around by younger brothers, moral policing is the full-time job of uncles, aunts and even neighbours. This is not Indian culture. This is a culture that roots from male's ego. Female ego is an equally dangerous thing and leads to many crimes but this male ego is far more lethal because it has the support of those mothers, wives, daughters who bow down in front of it. Even the society approves of it. Not culture, the society. It comprises of people who have vested interests. People who make profit from their relations with the patriarch. The patriarch is the one running the business, making decisions, mixing in the society. His ego needs to be fed and  in the process, this whole set-up creates monsters who aren't as productive as the patriarch but have imbibed the values fed to them by the society.

If anyone can break this vicious circle, it's girls themselves. They need to take, nay, snatch the helm and start making decisions. They need to be united socially, not in an aggressive and feminist kind of a way but in a "sister, I have your back" kind of way.

The Khap needs female members who eventually dismantle the mechanism of producing more patriarchs. The arranged marriages need to be looked down upon by the society. The jobless, abusive males need to be discouraged from having an identity let alone "ego". Drinking and abusing need to be dissociated. Verbal abuse should be looked down upon by the society and not romanticized. No, Lord Ram cannot be our ideal now. He was a patriarch. We need a new mythical character, preferably male who can stand up to the society, not give in to the pressure and take an "agnee pariksha".

As far as my personal views about the punishment that should be given to the rapists, I think they are the apples that have gone horribly wrong. No scope of redemption. I think they should be first castrated, then kept in pain for a month and then hanged. Then their bodies should be put on display in the socially bankrupt societies of India. The patriarchs should have a conscience but now that things are so skewed, they first should have fear and then respect for women. Only then the next generations can have a better future.

I know it's just an angry rant but, I couldn't sit quiet!