Living in hope


Back to writing after a really long time. Wrote this article for Amma's school magazine.


Every morning the newspaper stares at me, showing a scary picture of the world we live in today. Be it dirty politics, corruption or violence against a human being in some form or the other. And the act of violence that hurts me the most is the crime of sexual assault of a person. When the act of expressing love becomes that of hatred, domination or revenge, it takes the most horrendous form of this crime against a human. And such incidents happen to women the most.
I am sure all of us have been forced to sit back and think seriously about this crime these days due to the ‘Nirbhaya’ case. All of us have some opinion or the other about this. However, what matters is how many of us have decided to act as a responsible citizen who would raise an alarm or help the victim as soon as he comes across such an incident. It is matter of great shame that all of us lead a hypocrite’s life. We do not follow what we preach. Further, we believe double standards. If one of our family members is in trouble, we immediately come to his rescue; but if it is a stranger, we hardly bother to go to his help. We need this callous attitude of society towards women’s safety to change.
Statistics say that crime against women has been found more in lower income groups pan India. However, the ‘Nirbhaya’ case has instilled fear deep down in each one of us who thought cities are safer place for us to live. So what are we going to do to ensure a free and safe land for the fairer sex? Are we going to protest against the government for a few days demanding corrective action and then forget all about it as we do in case of most of the other acts of injustice? We do have a choice to come out of this ‘chalta hai’ lifestyle. Apart from the responsibility of government and society at large to provide a safe environment to its people, it is the biggest responsibility of women themselves to be more aware of their inner strength, their surroundings and ways & means of protecting themselves. Darwin’s theory of ‘survival of the fittest’ still holds. Unfortunately, women still need to fight for their right to live a free and secure life. As they have succeeded in changing the age-old practice of ‘being only home-makers’ by climbing up corporate ladders and earning their own livelihood by working towards it, they would definitely, slowly and gradually, eradicate this social disorder.
I am full of hope that there will come a day when a woman would be able to take a lonely, dim-lit street of any part of India in the night to reach her homely safely. There is light at the end of the tunnel!
  

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