• A Teenager expresses anguish at the RG Kar Hospital case, lives in great fear that she could be the next. It is Mothers and Sisters who have reform their Men at home. 

The nation has been taken aback by the spine -chilling incident involving the rape and murder of “Abhaya”, a second year PG doctor at RG Kar Medical College. The streets of Kolkata roar with rage at its citizens demand justice. Peaceful protestors swarm the roads, holding up slogans up reading, “WE WANT JUSTICE”, proving once again the theory that history not only repeats itself but also rhymes.  

But with a heavy heart, I can tell you that justice has turned her back on women, not today but from the very beginning. So many people, both men and women, are truly disoriented and horrified by this incident as they should be. However, these many voices die down in-front of the huge number of people who still believe that a man can never be at fault when he violates a woman’s body and even murders her. We live in a tragic world where our bodies are used as weapons against us. 

My dear nation, known for its democratic rule, equality, diversity has failed its women today. I now know that I live in a country where everyone’s life is considered cheap, and us women are barely considered too have lives at all. When the Nirbhaya case took place, distraught people held peaceful protests and marched with candles in their hands. 

That is precisely what is happening now. Nothing has changed and it seems that nothing will change.

The only thing that enrages people about the Abhaya incident is that the victim was a doctor. But what about the many women like Pallavi Purkayashta who suffered similar fates at the hands of merciless demons who brutally raped and murdered them? What about the girl who is orphaned and has no support? As I speak there is a woman out there in India who is getting brutally raped right this moment. Nirbhaya, Abhaya….the list will go on and on. 

The only difference is that no one stood up for these women. No one protested, no one acknowledged their cases. All these women and young girls have had their hopes and dreams destroyed, bodies violated and been wounded not by only men but also the world’s indifference. No one served them or their families’ justice. 

One would expect women to understand the plight of one another, but in reality there are many who are ignorant enough to not protest and society has rarely been on our side. Nothing will change unless one lives under the impression that you could be next.

I now also know that if I’m unfortunate enough to be at wrong place at the wrong time this might be the fate awaiting me. This “wrong place’ might just be a hospital, a secluded classroom or a desolate street. Such monsters will not look at our wealth, our education or even the power we yield. 

Our gender is enough for them to think that we’re nothing but our bodies. 

Such people are not scared of death. Nirbhaya wanted her assailants to be burnt alive, but the law of the land did not allow it. According to them the hanging of her assailants was enough justice.

I am personally of the belief that such creatures must be exposed to the most excruciating tortures out there. They should be publicly castrated and bathed in acid.

But of course our law, just and tolerant as it claims to be, will never do right by the victims. I write this article in great fear, that I may be next.

According to UN Crime Trend Statistics 2013, UK has the high number of rape cases per lakh of population followed by USA, Brazil, France and Mexico. Source These numbers just a perspective and not meant to justify rape. Read   an interesting interview with Amrita Basu

Unless MEN REFORM and that reform starts at home by their mothers and sisters, things might never change!

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Aadrika Chattopadhyay studies in class X school at a school in West Bengal. She has published seven non- fiction articles in Prabuddha Bharata which is the longest running English journal in India published by the Ramakrishna Mission and Math.

Editor Notes

Some are asking for Central Security Forces to be placed at hospitals with security akin to airports. We must know that Health and Law/Order are State subjects under the Indian Constitution. States will never agree to have Central Forces placed at their hospitals.

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