New Delhi: A 21-year-old school teacher was stabbed over thirty times by a stalker in broad day light in Delhi and not a soul came forward to stop the brutal crime unfolding in front of them. Many walked away from the crime scene unperturbed, fearing for their own safety.
What happened in Delhi is a reminder that a woman is not safe anywhere whether in the sprawling capital or in the cloistered train compartment, and drives home the point that no matter how many precautions a woman takes, crimes against women can be avoided only if we change the focus towards the perpetrator, rather than the victim.
The case follows a slew of other such attacks on women, most notably a similar attack on a 24-year-old Chennai techie. S Swathi, employed with Infosys, was hacked to death by a jilted lover, again in broad day-light, on Nugambakkam railway station which was teeming with people. Again, as is the norm these days, no one came forward and Swathi bled to death at the crime scene. Not stopping there, the alleged killer's father had the audacity to claim that his son was being framed for being a Dalit.
A 35-year-old woman was raped in a moving train on Sunday and pushed out of it, resulting in loss of her right leg in Mau district of Uttar Pradesh. The incident has achieved a record - UP now has the second highest number of crimes in railways after Maharashtra.
Earlier last month, a mother and daughter, on their way back with their family from a funeral, were waylaid in the national highway near Bulandashahr and gangraped by a group of bandits.
Two girls were gangraped by a group of men in Delhi’s Aman Vihar last week in front of their male companions who were thrashed and tied up first.
If there are still any naysayers, then this incident would probably help one understand the situation better.
A student of Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi recently put up a post in Facebook describing her harrowing experience inside her own PG accommodation.
So much so for the outrage that was triggered after the infamous Nirbhaya gangrape case.
Thousands took to the road, men and women, turned up in large numbers to express solidarity with the paramedic student who was gangraped in a bus in heights of winter. 'Not another one' was what echoed then. There was some hope.
But there was no one to come forward to help Swathi, or Karuna, or anyone else for that matter.
Makes one wonder, when will the hipocrisy end?
