India is a country which still has deep roots set in patriarchy despite advancement in science and technology. In urban India, we can even see women doing all jobs which men are doing. They get lots of love from their parents and receive a quality education. They are encouraged to pursue their dreams and passions. But this is not true for all girls in India. Most of the girls in India have to bear the brunt of patriarchal traditions. Right from childhood, they are told they are Parayaa Dhan (Others ‘PROPERTY’)!! They are trained well in doing all household chores. They are also asked not to raise their voice and argue with others. In a way you can say, girls in India are prepared mentally to suffer all kinds of injustice silently.
In such a scene, if a girl is raped by anyone be it a known person or some stranger the girl’s family generally asks her to keep quiet; mainly for the reason that ” The society won’t respect a girl who has been raped and defiled”. In cases where a girl gets support from her family and files a complaint, she has to undergo a tremendous amount of psychological and mental pain. She is harassed by the police, the society, the accused everyone! Even the fellow women who are otherwise very ‘sweet and friendly’ don’t show support openly to rape survivors.
In a country where girls as young as a few days old to women in the late nineties are being mercilessly raped, how can we say that a girl or woman becomes defiled and should be outcast from society?? All I want to say and emphasize is, a girl or woman who has been raped is as NORMAL and PURE as anyone else!!
In Western countries, nearly as many women get raped as in India. But in those countries, the accused get a severe punishment for the crime. The rape survivors get full support and empathy from people around. They feel safe, loved and cared for. They fight and win! They live a completely NORMAL life. A rape survivor gets married to a person she loves and enjoys a blissful family like – a dream which is just too big for rape survivors in India! I ask why can’t we ‘Normalise’ rape survivors in India as they are normalized in Western countries? After all, rape survivors are also human beings like us! Think about yourself in the situation of a rape survivor and then you will be able to imagine their pain not just for being physically violated by some pervert men but also because of being outcast by the same society where she spent her entire life.
Please show support, give all possible love, care, and respect to the rape survivors. They are also just like you and me. It’s not their fault that they were forcibly violated against their wishes. They are already broken, instead of breaking them more please help them live a normal life without any judgments and criticism. Believe me, you’ll be creating a safe and happy place for your fellow women by doing just this much-showing empathy and giving them respect. Don’t you agree with me when I say ‘Every Woman is Wonderful!’
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