The Fastest Growing Crime in India:

Rape

In India, rape is the fourth most common crime against women. And this is only based on the cases reported by people. 98% of the cases aren’t even reported. You can easily figure out the hideousness of the situation from these facts. Therefore, Justice J S Verma has aptly stressed on the need for stricter laws against rapists so that they are given suitable punishments for these terrible crimes. However, only the implementation of such laws will not be enough. The thought process of the people also needs to be changed. One of the best ways to do this is a huge education campaign led by the government. The aim of this campaign should be to bring about a great transformation in what people think about women and girls, and how they behave with them.









In the last forty years, the number of rapes in India has increased by 875%. It has become harder to find a girl who has not been harassed some time in her life. A survey was conducted last month in Delhi, and it was found that 92% of men knew someone who had harassed or sexually assaulted a woman. That is why many men believe that the solution to this problem is that girls should start wearing overcoats.





People have overcome terrible problems in the past with the help of education and awareness campaigns. Some of those problems even seemed impossible to be solved at that time. HIV rates were reduced all over the world with the help of educational drives. When domestic violence was at a high in India, the Bell Bajao campaign helped in making people aware and overcoming that problem as well. After getting rid of such huge issues, it is now time to use the rage burning inside people and save the women of this country.









After the terrible Delhi gang rape case, Avaaz had proposed a four-point plan for the government to avoid such cases in the future. Firstly, the government would need to spend a good amount of money for a public education campaign. This included ₹50 for each Indian citizen. And this expenditure could be covered with the help of partnerships with private media.











The second point of the plan included the investment of time. This education campaign should have been gone for at least four years, and later made permanent in schools.





Thirdly, the government should have used the reach of movies and sports celebrities and other popular personalities and also got their smartest people working on the project. And after having established this campaign, suitable measures should have been taken to reduce sexual assaults.






So the first thing that was suggested was to get people educated and only after it was properly established, it would have been effective to take measures against the sexual assaults. And this kind of campaign on such a large scale can be run only by the government.












Despite amendments in laws, the brutal rape cases have not changed at all. It is not human nature to be violent. Such attitudes have been shaped through the years, by the patriarchal society. It has led men to believe that they are superior to women and have the right to do anything they want with them. Women have been objectified since the dawn of entertainment, fashion and even sports industries. Moreover, the caste system still comes into play in this situation. Higher caste men are still brutally raping low caste women. Everywhere, women are treated as objects of pleasure without any thoughts or existence of their own.




Therefore, if we want to stop climbing the charts in the cases of sexual assaults, the only solution is to change our mindset. No matter how much we develop, as long as the thinking of people remains the same, we cannot expect any real change in this scenario.