What Use Is ‘Achievement’ If Our Children Are Not Safe From Such Gruesome Acts?

The Kathua incident has shaken up the whole nation and rightly it should, as it is a heinous and barbaric act that only demented minds can even think of doing.

I have been reading people make statements like ‘we can feel the pain of what she went through’ or ‘my heart goes out to her and her family’ and so on. But the fact is that it is just not possible for any of us to feel the pain of that child.

As a 40 yr old female ;knowing fully well that despite all talks of equality, all the achievements of women in various fields;  we are still susceptible to an indecent touch and gaze of few unscrupulous men, I feel disgusted when someone tries to ‘feel’ me.  The victim here was an 8 year old child. There is no way any of us can feel the pain that she was made to go through.

I am the mother of a 10 year old and one of the days while watching some debate on TV, my daughter asked me the meaning of rape and I just ignored the question and changed the topic. I didn’t even want to tell her about it. These maniacs actually raped an 8 year! An innocent little child who probably had no kind of hatred or whatsoever against any person or community in particular and who just was a happy go lucky child, silenced forever in the most horrific way.

The question that comes to my mind is, who or what is to be blamed for such behavior? Have we failed as a society? Is it the upbringing or the uncontrolled aggression or just arrogance of the people who deem themselves powerful in some way or the other?  Not once or twice but over and over and over again. How do we as individuals deal with such crimes? Candle light vigils, protests, numerous debates on TV; definitely the outcome of punishing the criminals is achieved. But what next?

We all were aware of the sad plight of Nirbhaya. There was an outrage about that incident as well. Political parties blamed each other, there were protests, candle light vigils and finally the perpetrators were punished. Yet,  6 years later it is this young child from Kathua. Now what? Though media has gone on an overdrive, it is because of media that we have been made aware of her case. There may be so many such innocent other children, girls, women being raped and those not getting the attention or justice and goes unnoticed and uncared for.  Where does this end and when does all this stop?

I have no answers to these questions and I can only console myself that in spite of the negativity around, our world is still a beautiful place and life is good. Also, the next best thing I can do is teach my son to be respectful about the women around him, irrespective of who they are and what they mean to him. But beyond that, I feel that there may be nothing really pleasant about what we are leaving behind for the next generation. And that’s the sad truth about our society.

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What is the point of all the scientific, academic and economic achievements of a country, if its children are susceptible to such gruesome acts? Hopefully we can make some small difference in our individual capacity, in our little way and try to leave a better nation for our next generation.

Image via Unsplash

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