By Patricia Mukhim
Even then it took all of 300 cops to follow every suspicious trail and track down all serial offenders out on bail before they could lay their hands on three of the rapists who committed the heinous crime on the night of 24 November. At the time of writing, one of the suspects apparently surrendered before the Haryana police.
The rapists, we are told, come from Mewat in Haryana.
Considering that the victim was not alone and that her colleague escaped and immediately called up the police helpline should, in a situation where the cops are alert, have led to quick arrests. Unfortunately, that’s not how our policing system works. At the lower rung, it is manned by pathetically insensitive, insouciant, unresponsive and unprofessional constables.
We are told the cops could not understand English so the complainant had to use sign language. If the police had acted swiftly that very day, perhaps the gangrape could have been averted. But they took their time. And this is really the bane of the policing system.
Seldom, if ever, will you find a humane cop ready to assist you. One wonders when the cops will ever reform their behaviour in a country whose policing laws are so archaic and embedded in corruption that it cannot but fail the test repeatedly.
The term “home and dry” is an alien phrase in today’s context when home is not where the heart is but where the job takes you. For young men and women of the North-east, where jobs are hard to come by, the metros of India provide livelihood opportunities.
Strangely, while North-east youth, particularly women, have tried to adapt to the somewhat alien environs of Delhi, it is Delhi that makes it difficult for them to breathe easy. There are too many untold stories of sexual harassment at the workplace because to speak would be to lose a hard-earned job. Many of those who are working in Delhi, Mumbai, etc, are supporting themselves and educating their siblings as well.
Many rape cases on trial face the forensic tests; again, because police bungle while collecting evidence. This is why so many accused rapists are walking out free and commit similar acts repeatedly. Delhi Police Commissioner BK Gupta made an interesting point. He said the police could not be omnipresent, which is true.
He also said employers could not drop their employees some distance away from their place of stay. It should be incumbent on them to drop them to their doorstep. This also is a valid point. Companies that require the services of their employees until the unearthly hours cannot simply get away by dropping them “somewhere” from where they can walk home. This cannot be allowed to happen and more stringent rules should be put in place.
There is a sizeable workforce from the North-east in a good number of leading call centres in the National Capital Region (like Gurgaon and Noida). If they are on a night shift, they come home in the wee hours. BK Gupta says thousands of call centre workers are dropped between 1 and 5 am. This makes them easy targets for rapists and molesters who seem to prey on a hugely unguarded social space in Delhi.
The fact that these criminals are hardly ever arrested and that the Delhi police do not inspire confidence among the female gender only compounds the problem. A speedy arrest followed by a trial in a fast track court and, finally, the conviction of a rapist would have perhaps deterred others from following the same route.
But our justice system is so weak that the offender always has the last laugh. According to Gupta, there are about 300 rapists who are out on bail, so we can well imagine how the justice delivery system works.
Yet the public continues to depend on this sloppy institution because those at the helm of affairs see no merit in bringing the desired changes.
So each time a woman’s modesty is violated, there will be a similar hue and cry; politicians and civil society will make a noise and demand the arrest of the culprits. But compassion fatigue sets in and people get back to their routines and it’s business as usual for the cops.
In creating a furore, we are simply addressing the symptoms while the primary cause remains grave and unaddressed. Yet the fact that the matter reached Parliament and activated the policing system suggests this would not have happened otherwise. Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit does have a major role to play in lighting up dark spaces and placing CCTV cameras in some of the vulnerable areas.
Some areas of Delhi have been identified as highly unsafe for North-east women. These include Munirka, Mahipalpur, Nanakpura, Motibagh, Mohammadpur, Khanpur, Sarojini Nagar, New Friends Colony, Defence Colony, North Campus, Nehru Vihar, Gandhi Vihar and Sikanderpur in Gurgaon. Certainly there may not be enough cops to man these areas in a desirable manner, but a system certainly needs to be put in place.
While good policing is part of the solution and could deter crime, there are other serious social concerns that need to be addressed. Rape is becoming too commonplace an occurrence in Delhi and its suburbs. N
ot enough studies have gone into identifying the root causes for such misogynistic behaviour, which is hatred, hostility and contempt for women. It is hard to think of anyone else doing what a rapist does, which is to defile the woman to such a degree that she could even begin to hate herself for being a woman. That is the long-term impact that rape has on a victim.
But how does such an act affect the rapist? Or does it affect him at all? What is behind the mindset of a rapist? Are there underlying reasons that drive the male to violate a woman’s sanctity? Rape is not about sexual fulfillment.
It is about the assertion of male power and dominance and the need to subordinate, suppress, subjugate and ultimately defile a woman because of some unaddressed or unexpressed adolescent maladjustment.
Undoubtedly, we have several such maladjusted youth or even elderly men in our society. And just to set the record straight, rapes do occur in the North-east also; after all, rape is a universal crime.
But more often than not, the rapist is arrested by law enforcers on complaint from the victim. Sometimes the traditional institutions deliver summary justice and the rapist is socially ostracised and excommunicated from a particular village.
It is not a good idea for North-east youth to suffer the victim-hood syndrome and live in perpetual fear. There are some actions that need to be taken and these must be carefully discussed and an action plan chalked out.
One reason why women are attacked is because they are weaker and can be overpowered. This needs to be reversed and can be reversed. North-east women must learn self-defence tactics even if this means taking time off their packed schedules.
One would even advocate that the call centres they work for compulsorily organise a one-hour martial arts class. It is both an exercise and a stress remover and could profit the company as well.
Girls working at call centres should demand these facilities. Alternatively, the government should make it incumbent upon all BPOs to have training lessons for women in self-defence. However, call centres ought to shoulder greater responsibility to safeguard the interests of their employees.
About rapes happening because of racial profiling, one would prefer to reserve one’s judgment since no woman is safe in Delhi. Girls from the North-east become more vulnerable because they make up a good chunk of the workforce and live solitary lives in some of the not-so-posh areas of the capital.
Having said that, I would advocate that all such unsafe areas be reclaimed from the forces of darkness and this can be done through good policing, which is what should be the demand of the North-east MPs Forum.
The writer is editor, The Shillong Times, and can be contacted at
patricia 17 @rediffmail.com
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