Nothing New to Add...

Enough has been said and written about the gruesome rape that took place in Delhi. Many opinions, many discussions, many demands and one of the biggest protests. And I have nothing new to add to all those emotions because I feel every bit of it as intensely as each person out there - as intensely as every girl who has traveled in a public transport in this country, who has walked along any street crowded or not (both have their advantages/disadvantages depending on whose aside you look from), who has been around strange (and also familiar) men.

I don't intend to discuss any of my own emotions or feelings about this. What I do intend to do is to try and make sense of the one thing that matters now. What can really be done. People talk about clothes, self defense,  not being out at certain times, maryada, bhaiyya and lakshman rekha, protests demanding hanging and castration that might act as deterrents. Enough has been debated about each of these items as well.

I just want to put my head around various scraps of sense I was trying to make in the last few weeks about what seems like the only practicality really keeping all hopes of ideal situations apart..

Crimes will happen. Rape, murder, even female foeticide, dowry killings, honor killings, fraud, and all the way up to terrorism. They will keep happening. Some of these we can try and fight with education, awareness and opportunities. But, to expect a situation of zero crime or to expect any government or political  party in any part of the world to provide a crime-free-state guarantee is stupidity. Protest and outrage all you want. We can only ask for two things, justice for the victim and most importantly deterrents. There really is NO 100% prevention. Let us all first accept that. What there is is deterrents.

So what can be the deterrent for these criminals? You say the fear of death or castration? Really?

I don't believe the extent of punishment is a deterrent to anyone. I don't think a would-be criminal actually says "oh! This is just 5 yr imprisonment, not life term/hanging. So let me commit this one instead". No. Every crime is committed because the criminal is stupidly confident that he will get away. Less "stupidly" in our country, but still. Hence, I repeat, it's not a new law (that also may or may not get implemented) that is the need of the hour. It is proper, efficient and quick administration of existing ones. So that tomorrow the only possible deterrent will exist. The possibility of the criminal wondering "will I manage to get away cos this is what happened to all the others." 

And like all really good things I don't think there is any shortcut to this one.

An Afterthought:

You may blame everything else that seems like the cause of a crime. For me it's a choice some people made to act a certain way. Most  men we meet might have been in similar situations right? Being with or around  women wearing "skimpy" clothes, late hours, maybe a little drunk,  having a good time in a pub etc.? They didn't make a choice to rape that woman cos of these things. These 5 men did. And no matter how justified their "provocation  " might seem to some of the "greater" men of our society, they made that choice and committed that crime and need to be punished. You can harp on about whatever provocation.

Also, by saying that the provocation was there so the crime happened, in my eyes you are kind of admitting that if you had been in that situation you would have made that same choice as well. You would have raped her too. Because there was "enough justified provocation". No?

So be very careful of what you are admitting to oh learned gentlemen.