Much beyond rape . . .

There has been much written in the web and print media about the violence against women in our country after the very sad incident of a young lady being gang raped inside a moving bus in Delhi. 

My take on this issue . . . 

As many of us know very well, this is not an isolated incident. This article in 'The Hindu' has highlighted other such incidents. Even, the other day, it was not a difficult thing to spot out 3 incidents of violence against women including rape which was reported by our local newspaper. None of these hogs any limelight. The fact remains that women and the girl child occupy quite a lower rank in the social order. Time and again, I see this being emphasised by families during my clinical practice. It's many a time disgusting. 

In addition, I know families where the son has been given all facilities to do his studies, whereas the girl remains uneducated and uncared. 

When such an attitude prevails in the family, one need not search much to find out the sort of ideals which is instilled in the young men of the family. As they get out of the home environment, they look at women as objects to be used for satisfying their pleasures. 

Not many a day is not passed where the woman is not undressed in their thoughts and minds. And the pleasure so attained graduates to lewd comments and eve-teasing. The media of our day complements such thoughts and actions. Molesting and rape is just the extreme methods of this mindset. 

It seems that one requires to become an eunuch to be immune to such an attitude towards women. And any such protective attitude could end you in trouble as the two young men discovered last year. 

Well, where do we start? 

I believe that our learning starts at our homes where a daughter is as prized as the son. Our homes should be places where the husband will treat his wife with respect and kindness that the son would behave likewise with the women he meets in his life. Our daughters should not know what dowry means. 

There should be as much joy in a home when a daughter is born as when a son is born. The women in the house eats along with the rest of the family . . . 

I could go on and on. 

The situation is so worse in many of the regions of the country that the attitude towards the girl child has resulted in a situation the young men have to go in search of brides to other places. I saw the terminology of gendercide in this article. I'm not sure of how correct the terminology is . . . but the fact is that we have a situation of genocide which is targeting the female gender. 

What we see in the protests in Delhi is to quite a lot of extent, a mob response to this whole affair. I'm sure that there are quite a few aspiring leaders who would want to use this opportunity to make themselves heard. 

Things need to go to a micro-level . . . homes, communities, social groups etc. . .  if we want to see any change in this issue.