Bensinle Tep
Series of cases of rape have raised questions on the safety of women in our society. They fall victim to atrocities in the hands of their own community with whom they grow from a girl to a woman. Nagaland, supposed to be a traditional culturally rich society, which treasures the values of humanity, has also become one of the states unsafe for women joining the likes of Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai. Why should such gruesome crimes be committed on women, could it be because she is a ‘female’, the lower sex, so that men can show his heroic deed by using a woman, one will never know. Not only do women of older age group fall victim to rape but girl children are also targeted, taking for example the rape of a 4-year old and 12-year old child from Gorkha community on Christmas Day and New Year’s respectively, or the rape of an 11-year old Naga girl in Dimapur.
Such has become the condition of our state that none of the female sex, irrespective of age, status, community, caste, is safe anymore. The conduct of such crimes can only be answered on the lines of ‘civilizing’. Former Indian Army Officer Colonel Anil Athale (Retd.) commenting on rediff news on Delhi gang-rape pointed out that it is the ‘tolerance’ of eve-teasing and harassment of women that is the starting point of ‘social rapes’. These heinous acts can only be reduced by empowering, educating, and sensitizing moral values, and that starts from within the family. There are also other reasons as to why such crimes on women are rampant in our society, some of it being ineffective policing, horrible role models of leadership, ineffective and slow criminal justice system corroded by corruption.
Crime against women is a violation of Human Rights. States have the obligation to prevent, protect against, and punish atrocities against women perpetrated by either private or public actors. States hold the responsibility to protect individuals from Human Rights violation. Why should it not, when ‘We the People’, defined by democracy, have elected our own representatives to power, to serve our needs in an organized society, and these very people in higher authority fail to provide justice. Taking the case of Meena Rai whose post-mortem report had been dragged for two months failing to provide her with justice, in fact, this very case including two other rape cases had sparked off a protest rally for atrocities against women and girl child organized by Dimapur Gorkha Union (DGU) today to voice out the state Government’s failure to provide for safety and justice.
In the wake of the recent Delhi gang-rape, Delhi had initiated amendments in the state law, which calls for tighter security patrolling, help-line centres, the same was also followed by states like Tamil Nadu, woman police officer on duty at each police stations, fast tracking of rape cases to deliver quicker justice. In the same way Nagaland State also requires serious amendments in Law and Order, especially effective organized administrative mechanism, which will then follow effective Governance system. Only when there is a change in the law, something can happen. With the Assembly Election around the corner, running candidates or the Government in general, should retrospect on the rising atrocities on women in the society without being biased. The people demand answers, transparency, justice, law and order, and representation.
