Hello Friends

A few weeks back, I heard a very shocking news, which almost tore my heart apart. And guess what, news like this are becoming less and less shocking, as we hear more and more of them.

A family consisting of 4 women, 1 kid and some men were driving in the night to visit one of their hospitalized relative in Noida, India. It was about 1 A.M. in night. Suddenly tires of the car puncture and the family stops to check the issue. One of the men calls his hospitalized relative's family, that they will get late. He is just in the midst of the call, and then from no where 6-7 armed men encircle the family. As you can guess, they were dacoits and had thrown some spiky objects to puncture the car. First, they beat the men and then take all the money, jewellery, cards etc. from the family. And then as if controlled by the Satan himself, they do things, which make even the animals much better than us. Looting cash and jewellery was not enough for them, so they decide to loot the respect of the women also. Obviously the family tried to protest, but what can an unarmed average family with a child do against a gang of armed demons. 

They drag the 4 women to the nearby fields and gang rape them one by one. They take the first one, rape her ignoring her pleas and cries, come after 10-15 minutes, take another woman and do the same till all 4 women were gang- raped. Whenever the woman being raped tried to resist, they would beat her, stomp her face on the ground. The family couldn't scream for help also, since the dacoits had pointed the gun on the child. So the family members could not do anything. While this was happening, one of the male members of the family tried to stop them, but they shot him in the chest and he was instant dead.

Now, if you try to place yourself in the shoes of those women, then you will realize that how many fears and pains did they went through that night.

• Pain of seeing their sister/relative being raped.
• Fear of being raped next.
• Fear of the child's death, if they scream or try to resist.
• Physical pain
• The anger, shock and sadness that one of their relative died trying to save them from the clutches of those devils
• Maybe many more things, which we can't imagine also

And even though the men did not went through physical rape, they did went through a mental rape. Nothing can be more worse than a man, than to see his sister, wife, daughter being raped in front of him, and he can't do anything. They won't be able to forgive themselves for their whole lives, even though they really could not do anything at that time.

The guy who was on the another side of the phone calls the police after 1 hour, as he suspects something bad happened on the other side. The police reaches around 1 hour late as they did not have any accurate location of the family. After seeing the police, the dacoits take advantage of the night and lush fields; and escape. They were just caught a few days ago, which made me write this article.

This is not the first demonic attack on women in the recent times. Just a few months back, a similar gang-rape happened in a similar way. It was known as "Bulandshehar rape incident". A family with a teenage girl was going to their relative in the night. Dacoits come and force them to stop the car. Upon seeing the teenage girl, they drag her to nearby fields and gang-rape her. Just imagine the tragedy that happened to that teen girl. In the times of playing, studying and enjoying her life, she was gang-raped by armed men. This matter was also highlighted in the media and after a few days the culprits were caught. Their case is still pending in the court and it may take years to punish them!

And before this, in year 16 December, 2012, another brutal gang-rape occurred, which was so inhumane and shocking, that most of us can't even imagine it in our worst of dreams. A medical student and her male friend were returning after watching a movie in a cinema hall. They board a bus to get to their home. But little did they knew, that the bus they were traveling in would soon turn into a hell for them. 

The bus driver's friends (4 men including 1 teenager) were also there in the bus. They were in drunken state and upon seeing the girl, they decided to not only rape her but also do things more evil. First they beat the friend of the girl and made him unconscious. Then they gang-raped the girl. After that they decided to PLAY with her. They inserted iron rods, broken liquor bottles and various other things into her vagina; made various cuts on her whole body and face. They did whatever they could, to belittle even the demons. After some hours, they stopped the bus and threw the boy and girl on the road and tried to crush the girl's face with the bus. But somehow she survived. They lay there bleeding and tortured, until some passerby called the police and ambulance. 

The girl was very determined and even though she was basically a living corpse, she wanted to live. She wanted to see the demons hanged. She was operated many times, some of her internal organs like intestines had to be removed, to prevent the infection from spreading. When her condition worsened, she was taken to a Singapore hospital via an air-ambulance, but she died 1-2 days later. The culprits had already been caught after 1-2 days of the incident and people protested against this incident in a never before seen numbers. This case was named "Nirbhaya case". Nirbhaya meaning fearless, as the woman did not surrender before the demons and wanted to live even after an unbearable pain and loss of her organs. 

The culprits were so hated by the society including the prisoners, that as soon as they reached the jail, other prisoners beat them very badly. All of the culprits had to be relocated to a secluded portion of the jail. One of them did suicide, as he could not handle the pressure from other prisoners, who wanted to kill these rapists after torturing them very badly. 

The teenage culprit was sent to a juvenile correction home, which is basically a home like environment to correct the teenage criminals. He was just a few months away from his 18th birthday, so escaped his punishment of jail and death sentence. Now he has been released from that correction home also, and relocated to an unknown place with a different name, so that he can continue his life without any fear. Can you imagine that? Even after doing such a horrific crime, not just he escaped his death sentence or prison, but also rehabilitated, just because he was few months away from being 18!! Many people wanted him to be hanged, but well law is law, and he got the advantage. 

Others rapists have already been death sentenced, and are awaiting their punishment. Every year 16 December is now marked as "Nirbhaya case Anniversary" (not official) and people march with candles to remember the brave girl and to hope for a rapist free world.

Another thing to note is that all these girls were dressed modestly (according to the society's expectations) and were traveling with their family or friends. And even then they were raped brutally. These is contradictory to the claim which some people make, that shorter dresses invites rapists and full dresses don't.

These were just some of the recent brutal rape cases in India. And they keep on happening everyday. Some get noticed by the media, but many are not highlighted by the victim herself, mainly due to the fear of a social stigma which women have to carry after being raped! For example, most families will choose not to make a rape victim their bride, because she has been raped.

  

Let's come to main point. The point is that why some men are becoming so demonic in nature. I won't blame the Govt. or Police for that. The reason being that police cannot be at each and every corner of the country to protect the civilians. Even the govt. can't do much. It has to follow certain rules and can not go on a shooting spree to kill all the criminals. So the responsibility totally falls on the society at large. What can the society do:

1) Parents making their lads more respectful to the women from the childhood itself.

2) Schools should not only teach Maths and Science, but also topics such as morality and compassion to the children.

3) When men commit crimes like rape, then their families should not come into their support, but instead help the police so that the culprits can be punished much easily.

4) If the culprits belong to a certain area or religion, then they should also not support the criminals, rather help the victim to get the justice.

5) Faster decisions on rape cases and stricter punishment. I have heard that in some Muslim countries, if a man is found guilty of raping a woman, then his penis is chopped off! And the fact is that they do have lesser rape cases. 

6) Some other forms of rapes, such as "marital rape" (husband raping his wife) are hugely ignored, at least in the developing countries. This is also the reason that society at large should be responsible and aware, rather than putting all the blame on Police and govt.

This is what I feel should be some steps to prevent rapes. What steps do you think can lessen the rape cases happening all over the world? What are the punishments in your country and how does your society react to the rape cases. Please discuss them in the comments below. 

Note: This article does not convey the message, that Indians are rapists. But certainly there has been a visible increase in rape cases, especially in North India. One reason of increased rape cases could also be due to the fact that more and more victims are now coming forward to report their cases. Police forces have also been instructed to take these cases more seriously and the FIR (first information report) should be immediately filed in these cases. Also the society has also become more vigilant to rape cases and their is a general hatred towards rapists, molesters etc. 

Thanking You

Siddartha Gupta

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