A reality check...

While the brouhaha is on about the most recent incident of gang-rape in Delhi and its aftermath on the kind of punishment that awaits the accused, let us have a reality check about our own state in the meanwhile. Though it has become more of a fashion to label Delhi as the rape capital of the country and subsequently indulge in a more dangerous blame game involving a certain community, figures prove that the number of similar incidents is increasing at an alarming pace in Assam as well.

According to sources in the Assam police, the number of incidents involving the kidnapping of women or girls in the state has gone up from 1,456 in 2005 to 2,998 in 2011. The number of rape cases has significantly increased to 2,011 in 2011 from a much lower figure of 1,217 in 2005. The number of molestation cases has also jumped to 1,446 in 2011 from 899 in 2005. Now these are only official figures and the number would go up if scores of other unreported cases are included in the tally. The GS Road incident, which was an equally ghastly episode, isn't history yet. The incident involving the poor tribal girl, who was openly stripped and mercilessly beaten by a beastly mob in Guwahati, hasn't really skipped public memory till now. I would also take the liberty here to cite a recent happening where an NRL official was arrested for raping a married woman.

Thus a comment like “North-east is a better place for women” doesn't really hold ground under the given circumstances and is a kind of escapism. While it is prudent to identify areas of trouble and take necessary steps, a one-eyed approach like shifting the blame on a particular city only worsens the already complicated scenario. A causal and not an effects-oriented approach is the order of the day. We got to be empathetic here and not sympathetic. This is not Delhi’s problem alone. This is a problem afflicting the entire country and thus need a single-focussed approach. Although, nothing and I repeat nothing could possibly justify such a heinous act, the fact remains that there are deeper and more intricate social reasons which are responsible for the current milieu. All of us need to find those reasons out and sort them out rather than cry senselessly over a single incident and considering it as the end of the world. The reasons could be the subject of a different discussion that I would be taking up some other day.