The recent assault on a young woman in Delhi has stirred the nation and the lawmakers alike. But the latter seemed to be rudely woken up to the need to tighten the regulatory laws to make the conditions safer for women mainly on the Delhi roads. But is this enough, a mute question.
Here is a rough roadmap for the governments to take up to make the conditions safe for women in India and to avoid or at least reduce such brazen assaults like the one perpetuated on the hapless Indian woman in Delhi who succumbed to her injuries on 29th December, 2012 in a Singapore hospital.
Every school curriculum should include incisive lessons that teach about woman in a clearer perspective with regard to her role as sex partner that is mainly meant to be an equal partner in all respects with men in a legal wedlock - or be it in any formal situation out of wedlock with due consent from both the sides, maybe for pleasure, procreation or both.
Literature everywhere in books, films and media, including visual advertisements, should address woman’s role as something that has to be adored /respected for her beauty and grace, but not for exploiting the same, just on par with man. It is important to encourage woman in her choice of dress as her own expression, be it instinctive or creative, to promote her feminineness - and the same shall not be mistaken as patently inviting all and sundry to comment judgmentally.
All women from small girls to adolescents to the middle-aged have to be observed carefully and also discreetly i.e. without embarrassing them. This should be taken up by the family, neighbors and other near ones as also other well-meaning people in the community besides the managements of educational institutions where they may be studying or working to look out for their safety, especially when women commute on their own.
All costume outfits displaying certain fashionable dresses for women should put a notice discreetly that a particular wear is meant only for special circumstances as the same might attract unwanted eyes in public.
Young girls within their home have to be observed more carefully by their mothers and the other elderly women watching for any suspicious behavior from people known to the family or within the family per se, that may arise for possible attempts of assault on the younger persons.
To open self defense training courses for women in general at all schools free of cost, besides encouraging private and corporate organizations to conduct the same as their CSR.
Boys and girls should be encouraged from their adolescent age to know each other's sex better, as individuals with their natural character and morals for respecting the other sex on a level playing field for prospective relationship.
Parliament and assemblies including panchayats should conduct frequent meetings cutting party lines to discuss and assess the safety of women and take the necessary steps to make women feel secure with respect to their honor and self respect.
Police have to be equipped with counselors for teaching their personnel as to how to respect women with some basic sensitivity and sensibility.
Films, TV and press should regulate themselves while avoiding projection of women as sex objects either for kicks or sell material including the very media content.
The public and government should take such other measures, which are exhaustive, using with ingenuity and uplift women in the real world as well as in the mindsets of the people (including fellow women). Let society change from Patriarchal to ‘Uniarchal’ and let the rape victim’s pathetic end on 29th be the defining movement on the Indian conscience.
Author’s Note:
The above roadmap is spontaneously suggested by the author and it is not intended to make woman in India or readers feel bad, nor it should be taken as a crude list of suggestions since the author kept in his mind the overall safety of women in general while writing this i.e. out of his anguish soon after hearing the news of the raped woman returned dead after her failed recovery in a Singaporean hospital on 29th December 2012.
