Call for crusaders against rape

A day won’t pass without news of school-going girls or women raped in Kerala. The difference is only the attention that each gets. Some are trumpeted out from newsrooms, some sidelined. It seems like the public does not care. The public takes it in the stride as if it is an inevitable road accident. Few movies and violent crimes here and there shake the public consciousness then and now. That’s all! We do not fight this malaise as we fight polio or cancer or child labour.

It’s probably because we do not have crusaders for the cause. Except for some samaritans, we have vultures who devour the social evil. We have political leaders who belittle the victims, police who protects the violator, judicial system which only exacerbate the pain of the victim, society which isolates the family and media who run their own agenda. Where do we have an institution that can help the survivor overcome the physical and emotional trauma, the family from social ostracization while ensuring the legal recourse for them? Few commissions can be pointed but are they good enough?

Kerala has many crusaders. Crusaders against corruption, against alcohol sales, against pollution, against corruption, against cancer, against deforestation, against discrimination, against fascism, against suicide, against climate change, against, against, against…. Crusaders against rape? NO! Probably because the victims are only women. Men, the other half of the population, are not able to understand or relate to the trauma. Men do not understand that it is not a disease that you fight, overcome and forget. Among women, a large number do not care, believing it happens only to the careless.

But who is this crusader against rape? It is not an individual or an institution. It is an idea that snowballs into multiple forms. We have crusaders when we ensure that violators are marginalised and legally punished. We have crusaders when survivors are mainstreamed and recognised for their courage. We have crusaders when boys & men respect girls and women and not see them as objects of desire. We have crusaders when we remove the social stigma of survivors. We have crusaders when survival is a news item and not the rape! Rape is just a criminal incident. The story is survival. For that we need crusaders.

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