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Image of gang-raped woman carrying dead body of her child in Metro will haunt us

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Angshukanta Chakraborty
Angshukanta ChakrabortyJun 08, 2017 | 14:32

Image of gang-raped woman carrying dead body of her child in Metro will haunt us

There is no word in any language to describe the howl inside a mother's heart when she sees her child put to death, by her own rapists. Reports can only document the crimes, crimes against her sexual integrity, her body and her being, but they can't approximate the permanent wound in her heart that would never ever heal.

The gang rape of the 19-year-old woman, resident of Old Gurgaon, on the night of May 29, and the murder if her eight-month-old infant the same night right before her, expose, with clinical horror, the serial depravity in 21st century India, where stalking, raping and the casual killing of a baby become part of a sickening news cycle, and little else.

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The young mother, who was going to her in-laws' residence on the night of May 29, was dragged out of a shared auto, and raped by three men, each taking turns, while others tried to suppress the baby's screams. Irritated, they threw the baby on the main road, and her head hit the concrete median divider, perhaps killing her instantly.

Delhi, the national capital region, adjacent areas such as Noida, Gurgaon in neighbouring states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, as well as other smaller cities, towns in these states - have shown how sexual violence and accompanied barbarity have spread like the plague in these parts of India.

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The Gurgaon police have released sketches of the accused.

Barely weeks back, we saw a family of four women travelling in a vehicle being sexually assaulted and robbed of valuables at gunpoint. Incidents of gang rape and murder have emerged from Rohtak, Bulandshahr, Sonepat, and various other places, each with its own litany of utter horror and cruelty, absolute degradation of the female body and human dignity.

Innards are shred, women are bludgeoned to death after being raped, dismembered to prevent identification, as if raping isn't enough an act of crime, violence and violation enough.

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The Gurgaon gang-rape of the 19-year-old, however, also points out the cold-blooded nature of the crime. The stalkers had followed the woman as soon as she left her home with the baby in her arms. They trailed on as she boarded a truck but got off minutes later, only to offer her a ride themselves - in the shared auto they were travelling in. Soon after, they halted at a vacant plot and raped her by turns, killing the baby in a terrifying finale of a despicable theatre of cruelty.

Yet, it's not enough to only point out the horror of the sexual violence and the attendant child murder. We need to ask questions on that ever-elusive but oh-so-frequently floated topic: What about women's security?

Three points here:

1. Why were there no public transport at night in the area in Old Gurgaon? The young woman had no recourse but to take shared rides in trucks and autos? Why isn't there women-friendly public transport at all?

2. What about police personnel? How is it that these streets are not monitored for incidences of violence, robbery and general criminality? What about CCTV monitoring? What about gender sensitive police patrolling? Why not have female cops for night duties for attending exactly these kinds of emergencies?

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3. What about criminal records of auto, truck and commercial vehicle drivers? Are they being verified properly? Are those with histories of sexual violence being given licences to ply their two-three-four-wheelers and make the streets even more unsafe?

These basic questions aside, what can be done to respond in a manner that isn't run-of-the-mill, that isn't adding to the sexual violence voyeurism of the 24X7 news cycle? As we have said earlier in one of our previous editorials, sexual violence is occurring in a pack - gang rape is becoming the new normal, not an aberration any more.

What does this mean? The predatory nature of sexual violence is attaining gorier, more sickening attributes with each passing day. Rape isn't enough: now we see evidence of visceral torture, of bloody mutilation, of traumas such as witnessing the death of a child, a husband, a parent while being raped. It's as if the punitive impulse has reached a crescendo.

This sickness must end. We need to ask why, at a time when catchy slogans talk of women's empowerment, education, entrepreneurship, engineering feats, do we see such animosities unleashed on women from every corner of India?

Why is it that we are no longer shocked at these horrifying incidents of sexual violation, each with its own trail of humiliation and annihilation of the soul and bodily integrity?

Last updated: June 08, 2017 | 14:56
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