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Editor’s Note

No end to rapes as women’s

safety is still a hard battle

THE CHILLING GANG RAPE and charring to death questioned. Is this not laxity of police? Are the police not
of a young government veterinary doctor on her way responsible for such a grave crime? Last year’s report
out from duty after day’s hard work along the national of Thomson Reuters Foundation Survey of 548 experts
highway in Telangana has shamed the nation. The gory on women’s issue that found India as the world’s most
and horrifying incident shows yet again that women’s dangerous country for women due to the high risk of
safety is still a hard fought battle. We have failed to pro- sexual violence should have led to change of mindsets
vide a safe environment to the women to lead a normal, and woken authorities from their slumber. But we failed
respectable life. The outpouring of grief, outrage and again. Police in the country registered 33,658 cases of
protests led our Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh to rape in 2017, according to the most recent available of-
announce in the Parliament that government was ficial data – an average of 92 a day - but the real figure is
“ready to make more stringent provisions in law.” believed to be far higher as many women in India do not
In Parliament, there was a strong demand from go to the police out of fear.
members for death penalty as the “only punishment” Tens of thousands of cases remain stuck in courts,
for the offence of rape. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar often hindering victims and their families as they navi-
Rao has also ordered immediate constitution of a fast gate the slow and cumbersome legal system. Figures for
track court to try the accused. 2017 point out that courts opened 18,300 cases related to
It is unfortunate that we talk about stringent laws rape but more than 127,800 more remained pending at
only after an incident shakes our collective conscience. the end of the year.
The victim (26) must have been a teenager when the The inability of state and society to provide women
December 16, 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder pricked safety reduces them to second-class citizens whose
our conscience. But still we failed to make life safer for fundamental rights have been infringed. We need to
women. We still lack an efficient system of law enforce- improve policing with zero tolerance for apathy like
ment and the police are still caught napping as rapes jurisdictional reasons. If we care for women, we have
and murders continue occurring all over the country. to make police more skillful and responsible. We can’t
The law enforcement agencies are culpable of the crime allow India to continue to be dangerous for women.
as they are unable to ensure safety of women. What happened with Hyderabad veterinarian can
As in countless rape cases, police failed to act swiftly happen to any one of us. Will the outrage last long or
on the family’s complaint citing jurisdictional rea- there will be new agendas and dirty politics? We can
sons rather than rushing to locate and rescue her. Her give up only at our own peril!
motives in calling her sister and not the police were also CHARANJIT AHUJA

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VOLUME 16, ISSUE NO. 24, 1-15 DECEMBER 2019, RELEASED ON 1 DECEMBER, NUMBER OF PAGES INCLUDING COVER 68
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