Nirbhaya verdict

Rajan Gandhi
Nirbhaya rape on December 16th 2012 had a very big impact on Indian society and brought to light the extent of gender inequality and violence against women throughout the country.The verdict of death sentence can have strong implications for men’s behavior towards women as this can lead to the law being regarded as a deterrent. Surety and severity of the punishment combined with a message of zero tolerance for sexual assault are the only ways to control violence against women. The Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013 was passed in March and is much more compressive in its approach to violence. Efforts have also been made to increase gender sensitivity within the police force and to improve responses to crimes against women. However, women’s safety still remains precarious in much of India and we continue to receive cases of violence against women on a daily basis. In order to reduce violence against women we as a society need to address the culture of gender inequality and discrimination that is widespread in India. This means along with working with the police and judiciary, we need to educate men and women on women’s rights under the law and work with communities to develop a gender-sensitive society that is underpinned by respect and equality.
Global Gender Gap Report that assesses the gap between men and women ranked India 105 out of 135 countries. Every day and every minute some women of all walks of life -a mother, a sister, a wife, young girls, and girl baby children- are getting harassed, molested, assaulted, and violated at various places all over the country. Areas like streets, public spaces, public transport, etc have been the territory of women hunters. Girl students studying in the schools or colleges have to shield themselves through books or bags or they have to wear clothes which can cover them completely. In some cases a girl child is sold by her parents just to earn some money. According to the statistics, it is found that a woman is raped in India every 20 minutes. The root cause of gender inequality in Indian society lies in its patriarchy system, “a system of social structure and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women”. Women’s exploitation is an age old cultural phenomenon of Indian society. It continues even today as thousands of Indian girls and women who are kidnapped, tortured and trafficked. Some are victims of honor killings ordered by khaps or fatwas, a punishment dealt on the basis of religious legal judgment. A large number of cases of domestic violence and marital rape routinely go unreported. One of quotes says that ‘stronger people don’t put others down; they lift them up.’ According to biology, men have stronger builds than women. Even though we live in the 21st century, the first two sentences of this quote seem to contradict each other. Disrespect for women starts at conception, with female embryos frequently aborted. And what begins at home spills into the burn wards of hospitals, full of young women set on fire for dowry and onto the streets, where men harass and rape women with impunity. Women call on men as “fathers, husbands, brothers and sons” and these very men should take responsibility for the ways in which they practice or excuse discrimination and violence against women.
Male preference throughout the country means that women are less educated, are more likely to be unemployed or to have insecure employment and are more vulnerable to poverty than men. Power dynamics within the family result in women having less decision-making power, no control over their lives or earnings. Furthermore, women are still excluded from decision-making bodies and only make up 11 percent of our parliamentarians. They  being educated, are joining the workforce, have increasing economic independence and are entering into spaces that have traditionally been male-dominated. India now prides itself on having the largest number of professionally qualified women in the world and Indian women can be found in almost all professions. Women have excelled as authors, actresses, political leaders, legal workers, law enforcers, sportswomen, corporate honchos, social activists, and media personnel, you name the field and they are there. In fact in  2011, both the president of the country and the speaker of the Lok Sabha were women and in 2017 we still have women speaker of Parliament, whilst women still face a myriad of challenges and experience discrimination in all aspects of their lives, but we are definitely seeing a change. This change is slow and it is not enough but it gives us hope and motivates us to continue in our struggle for gender equality. The justice done today shows that system is concerned but men also need to understand the concept of women’s safety and her rights. A female is not a commodity, she is a living being.  We need to look beyond the justice for the complete eradication of the root cause. Position of women must be taken seriously in every sphere of life. Therefore, what is needed is the movement for Women’s empowerment where women can become economically independent and self-reliant; where they can fight their own fears and go out in the world fearless; where they can snatch their rights from the clutches of men and they don’t have to ask for them; where women have good education, good career, ownership of property and above all where they have freedom of choice and also the freedom to make their own decisions The era of women empowerment has started , whether you want it or not but remember, “No more injustice towards women now.”
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