A normal day in India usually starts with noisy train platforms ,jammed roads and over filled buses coupled with an annoying background music of eerie sounds, as everyone struggles to reach work on time. The kind of picture we see as we move out of our homes depicts everyone's urge to make it to their future. However, a few days ago, whilst India was busy planning its future, a one and a half year old baby girl was being raped by a heartless, pleasure seeking individual, aware that everyone is too busy pushing each other around and trying their best to step ahead of every one who comes in their way!
A ruthless individual, yesterday, got the courage to take a child and fool around with her and the child, just an 18 month old baby, went through the most monsterous activity ANY one could ever face. I understand, how a lot of other things happen in this world that could be termed 'horrendous'.What i dont understand is why, knowing that a horrendous event took place in our vicinity, there wasnt a pause.
Why didnt the noisy train platforms go silent, why didnt the cars on the jammed roads drive themselves behind the rapist, why werent the over filled buses en route to justice. WE, yes me and you, have created a very sad world. I wont even go into the much serious issues that have successfully been able to create unbearable misery.
But i wonder, am i just supposed to hear about this and feel sorry.. I heard this incident today and found out 19th November is popularly recognized as Worlds Day for Prevention of Child Abuse.
I heard this for a reason.
An individual can make a difference but the rate at which the evil in human mind plots and plays is much much higher than the exisitng 'difference creating' momentum.
I am not sure how i would describe myself to stand against it. But i believe, there must have been some way in which that innocence in the baby girl could have been preserved. There must be a limit to all evil.
While you sit with all the gadgets and branded clothes around you, a moment of thought on social issues exisiting around us, would be the first drop in the ocean of a difference, YOU could make.
This incident is so overwhelming, i am really not able to express what i feel in words..However, It did make me pause, it truly did.
The root lies in strengthening every existing system. I am going to play my role, i want you to play yours. There are ways- Lets figure them out.
10 comments:
Firstly I'm shocked to read this... It's sumthing Im not able to believe... where we all sit in our homes and offices getting lost in our own sweet world,working to have a lavish lifestyle and thinking the world to be one bed of roses... but we dun realise how cruel ppl can be... There defenitely are ways and we can figure them out but, why these things are still taking place when india is deciding its future... why govt. doesnt take any action against such thing... does democracy mean this? I'm so disturbed rite now and so shocked to read this... its good to say we need to figure ways out... so many organisations r there... so many social workers are there who work on such issues but wats the point... our govt surely has the time to divide ppl in india and raise issues like maharashtra is not a part of india and why sachin tendulakar said wat he said and shivsena always ready to be inhuman towards those who dont belong from maharashtra but why our govt dun they see that ppl are forgetting to be human... and do sumthing abt it... Damn yaar rite now i feel... all we do is keep posting these things on fb and read on newspapers.. but those who commit such crimes will ever realise just for their few min pleasure how they r ruining one's complete life and destroying humanity from this world. :(
Highlights the dark side of human character…to shut itself from the cruel realities of life by denying its very existence. People simply don’t care what happens around them anymore…it’s not their business unless the crisis affects them in anyway.
its like untill n unless u, me or any1 in general any1 wont go thru some shit in life wont realise how shity things around u can be. however it is... the cruelties that are taking place all over the world are beyond our imagination...sad but the truth is we seriously can not do anythin abt it...
Every now and then an event comes along that makes even the hardest among us stumble in our daily assurances that "all is well and wonderful in my world." Far too often, however, events such as this horrific crime never are reported, never, perhaps known by any but the perpetrator and victim. As in this case, most often the victims are young, powerless, afraid.
As you wisely note, this is a complex and multifaceted problem. It will not be solved by addressing any one area of law or society but by a only by the change of hearts and education of minds. Rapists in America are no different from rapists in India - whether a wealthy college boy who rapes his date when she is drunk, a pedophile who preys on children, a husband who rapes his wife, or the relatively rare (compared to these) "evil man in the alley." In all instances the rapist is a person exerting his power (sometimes even called his "rights.") And in all cases, he is sick. Not the type of sick to be pitied necessarily (though a hugely high $% of rapists were raped themselves as children) but the sick outcome of a sick society that says the powerful shall prey on the less powerful.
The same is often the case in non-sexual child abuse and the long-term affects of physical and emotional abuse are much the same as those of sexual abuse. And yet, all to commonly we don't feel the shock or notice the damage caused to children by such abuse. And we do so as our own risk as those children are the adults of tomorrow...and the cycle continues all too often. When my husband and I did foster care for abused children here in my US community, the most difficult children we cared for were a brother and sister who suffered no blow or rape, but extreme neglect. But that is a discussion for another day.
As I started by saying, sometimes something so horrific occurs that does cause all of us to stop. Bow our heads in shame (yes, shame) and if there is any small, small silver lining to such a nightmare, it is that from time to time, people like you don't just continue as before but stop and say: We need to notice. We need to talk about this. This must stop.
One last small note of correction to your brave and honest note: the victim of this rape has not lost her innocence. She was, is, and remains pure and innocent. To think or say otherwise is to give her personal monster the win. He took not from her but from himself and his family and his community. Please, let India (and America) forever support and not blame or lessen the status of the victim. That baby girl is as golden and pure as the day she was born. She will, depending on the actions and words of those around her, potentially be made for feel shame and that would be even a more horrendous crime to her long term well-being. With good care and good luck her body will mend. Her most difficult task will be to live in a world that stigmatizes here simply for having existed as the target of that sick man's crime.
Thank you so much for not letting yet another child's victimization fall into the dust unnoticed.
i hate the fucking ignorant ppl who care for no one but their bloody selfish career only to live it off in regret, only to realise one old sad day tat the haste to future wasn't tat worth after all.. I am ashamed of calling such indian ppl as ours.. And rightly, the momentum of bad is way too greater than the snailpace of good.. I pledge to be a part of any forum that does take any effective action against such ppl. And laila, u definitely are making a difference by educating ppl about the ungodly nature of a selfish and ignorant indian.
while I read this , a sinking hollow feeling of sheer grief and hopelessness fills me. As I fumble with my words , the only thing that comes to my mind is a lack of awareness and an unjust judicial system contribute to this barbaric incidents.though they CANT BY ANY MEANS be an Excuse , but I believe that work on these can help us build a safer world , at least less barbaric. Thanks laila for bringing this to our notice and I pledge to contribute my own way,in however insignificant scale it may be , to the cause. GOD bless the child and her family
I am glad we all have the mindset to think beyond wht our govt fights on, supposedly regionalism etc at the price of which as ashi stated, humanity is bein eradicated.
Also, i m glad this note, made us acknowledge the exsitence, and bring it to notice in a deeper level n i HOPE this stay, i really hope it does. While we follow our routine life, a fact tht these negative elements exist must be registered somewhere in our thinking. coz honestly i dont think we NEED to go thru it to do something about it.
Diana, u put up some very interesting points there, n i agree with u but also i think at this point in time, the intentions can be categorized equally, coz i m not sure its just about power nemore...For example, limits were crossed when a man raped a dog in india
[http://www.mid-day.com/news/2009/sep/010909-rape-dog-sexually-abused-Rajeshwary-Khanna-Tardeo-taxi-driver.htm]
Also, i mentioned the innocence part, coz the girl cudnt survive, she succumbed to her injuries as she was 18 months.
I think the pledge we can start with is to change hearts and educate as diana mentioned, to spread awareness, to make ppl realise its a shame and make sure tht no other baby goes unprotected.
A small initiative can be the very beginning from our side.
You have indeed touched upon a very serious topic, Laila..
And it is indeed commendable on ur part that you had the courage to call our attention to the fact that this evil exists in our society..
Child abuse causes severe trauma to the victim and makes the child lose its self-esteem and confidence..
Child abuse could be in many forms, such as Verbal Abuse (constantly scolding a child in front of everyone, calling by demeaning terms, insulting), or Physical Abuse (causing bodily harm/ injury), apart from Sexual abuse..
This November 19, I think we should all resolve to help and do something if we have seen a particular child been abused by any of these forms..
I, for one, have resolved to save a victim of child abuse..
It is never too late..
May God help me achieve me goal, Ameen..
And yes Laila, being a Muslim, i would like to say that the penalty for rape in the Shariah (Islamic Law) is Capital Punishment..
If the Shariah were applied, futured rapists wud be deterred.. I have no doubt about that indeed.. No doubt about that.. That's the least punishment for someone who ruined another person's entire life and destroyed their dignity..
I too 'pledge to contribute my own way,in however insignificant scale it may be , to the cause'
May God Bless us all...
Yes... its a rather sad world... sad because we have made it to be this way... sad because we don't care too much or long enough... too busy moving to make a sense of direction.
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