Sleep Early to Stay Safe "Kolkata"

 

After the recent news reports, that showcased the various incidents of torture, assault, rape and murder of women on the streets of Kolkata in the past few weeks, the chief minister of west Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, issued a notice to all night clubs to shut down businesses in town by midnight -as an immediate measure to curb the horrific incidents happened against women. 

 According to me, this is not the right move. The act of not attacking the problem directly and instead playing around it-is showcasing her lack of responsibility towards citizens and is not something expected by someone who is bestowed upon the trust and responsibility by the people of the state in belief of a colorful future.

Restricting a certain population from hanging around the streets of the city after a certain time doesn't solve the actual problem- the social evil.The problem should be solved from the roots. The problem is not the night clubs or the people going to them but the problems  are the anti-social – frustrated –mentally sick– minds that take opportunity of helpless women.  Instead of just closing down night clubs, which is also restricting the freedom of the people of a democracy, there could be measures taken in terms of setting up safety measures. Like more surveillance cameras, more police personnel, many more measures for protecting the suppressed that need to be thought of by the government by keeping in mind various factors that limit/guide them in making the decisions.

According to me, more than this, there should be awareness about these acts should spread across all communities. There should be awareness made to children .Thoughts should spread amongst children-of today- as to- not to commit these social crimes. A permanent change can be anticipated by these acts. 

The major problem with these incidents is that, those committing these crimes are definitely not first timers, as most of these incidents go unreported. There should be awareness made to make women and children who are subjected to sexual harassments or domestic violence, in or near their community or college or work place or anywhere to come out and express the horror so that action can be taken against those committing them. There should be enough confidence built by the system regarding confidentiality of the reporters or assurance of action against the committers, so that people come forward and report the incidents. The government and NGO’s should work together in bringing about awareness and courage to face the incidents. Then there will be many persons brought under the law and the punishment for those committing these crimes should me made the highest and culprits should be made accounted for their crimes. 

The system and the law should be changed in such a manner that people who even imagine committing the crime should fear of being reported and also the gravity of punishment after. His sheer thoughts of pleasure via greedy evil crimes should be suppressed, quenched and impounded by the fear of mammoth suffering via punishment for the crime. 

Here are a few highlights about current law that generally prevents women from reporting the incidents and definitely separate them from justice. They need to be addressed to chop the wings of those uncivilized infected birds of the society. 

    a)    Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) defines rape “Rape (from Latin rapio, to carry off, to overcome) means an unlawful intercourse done by a man with a woman without her valid consent” Here the “Consent” is defined in six situations and is definitely a tricky term where most cases in the court are ruled against the victims and lets free the accused. 
    b)   According to Section 376 of IPC, the minimum imprisonment for a rape accused in 7-10 years but they are NOT NON-BAILABLE. A crime doer can escape with influence or other means at any time of the punishment tenure. 
   c)    The biased nature of the Indian law, Section 155 of Indian evidence act “When a man is prosecuted for rape or an attempt to ravish, it may be shown that the victim was of generally immoral character." Section 54 of Indian Evidence Act says, "In criminal proceedings (including rape) the fact that the accused person has a bad character is irrelevant, unless evidence has been given (by him) that he has a good character, in which case it becomes relevant."  This is sheer injustice to the women 
section of the society. This is clearly not what we claim “equal before the court of law”

Likewise, there are many more loopholes in the law that prevents the prosecution of the guilt. The proceedings in the court should be made very rapid for these cases so that all cases can be addressed quickly and efficiently and so there should be fear of punishment rooted into these rotten minds. Hence, there is certainly room for improvement in the Law for better society.

But, as we all know power and fear can never change the minds and thoughts of humans. The change should come from the minds. Within these Trojan infected minds a medicine- realization should rise to permanently end these social crimes. Then these persons will learn to behave like humans and not like- animals. They will realize the importance of feelings and try to understand the horror the victims face due to the tragedy. 

I am not quite sure how to end this article but I am going to end it by quoting the panacea, “awareness is the key to all social problems”