Rape

A sexual offence is committed against a child in India every 15 minutes. That is 4 children every hour, 96 children every day, 2880 Children every month and 34560 children every year.

Just because each case doesn’t make it to the headlines doesn’t mean it is not happening. When a particularly gruesome instance does make it to the news we try to avoid it as much as we can because it makes us uncomfortable or is upsetting.

News Flash: Closing our eyes doesn’t make the problem go away.

Recently, an Ordinance providing the death penalty for rapists of girls below 12 years of age, increasing the punishment for rape and other stringent provisions was promulgated. Obviously, these were supposed to be a quick fix for the ongoing upheaval caused by recent rape cases involving minors in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua and Uttar Pradesh's Unnao and was meant to drown out the hue and cry UNTIL NEXT TIME. Because we all know there will be a next time, for nothing has changed. If prescribing jail time was a deterrent grave enough, we won't be seeing a progressive rise in such crimes despite each amendment enhancing punishment for rape. Every time there is some kind of uproar about such cases the government passes new laws and everybody, including the public just wash our hands off as if justice has been done.

There is a popular saying in law- Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done."
I would like to rephrase it- “Not only must justice be seen to be done, it must be done.

Truth be told, this ordinance is nowhere even close to the measures the government or the executive should be taking. And it is not just their responsibility to act. As citizens of this country, it is our responsibility as much as the government’s to do anything and everything in our power. Once fancied by the world for being the land of diversity, lately, India has been getting nothing but flak from the people worldwide for its state of affairs. So much so, that people are branding it as the land of rapists. So do we just shrug this off as another ramification of our patriarchal culture? Do we need more humiliation to awaken our conscience?

For starters, we could stop questioning the victim’s integrity every step of the way. Another important thing, women DO NOT need the so-called protection or saving from their male counterparts, It is the men that need saving from their own thoughts. We just need men to be civil and human enough not to prey on the opposite gender at the earliest opportunity. How come it is only men who find it difficult to control their sexual desires? How come most women don't grope every man they like in public transport? Are they not attracted to men? We, as a society have some serious introspection to do for we have validated this behaviour through our mute spectatorship. Even worse, we have adapted to this by curtailing the freedom of our women relatives/friends while those perverts are roaming scot-free in the society making it a living hell for women out there.

And it is about time that we don't draft legislations in isolation but also account for the attitude of the people and society. For instance, the burden of proving the consent to sexual intercourse to escape the liability for rape under the Indian Penal Code (Sec 375) lies on the accused, once the victim claims to the contrary, but as the practical exigencies have it, it is invariably the woman who has to discharge this burden because the society first wants to know why she was there, at what time, with whom, did it really happen or could she have inadvertently given consent through her dressing sense, posture or any other covert action? The sheer apathy that the investigative agencies have towards such brave women who muster the courage to come forward in the hope of Justice is just heartbreaking. As if any answer to these questions (or so-called moral policing) could justify this barbarism! So why do we put the victim through this agony again? 

And there goes another piece of legislation, perfect on paper and in theory but completely redundant in reality.

What is the use of these laws if the conviction is as low as 25% and there aren’t proper systems in place to protect the victim and her family. It is also not justice if the offender is punished 20 years later. Even the strictest of laws are redundant if there isn’t a system in place for enforcement of such laws. That is exactly where we are lacking.

By Shalini Yadav & Manasvi Neyol

Thousands have lived without love, Not one without water

-W.H. Auden

    Hola folks!

Just a week ago, I was discussing a news article with Mitali and Manasvi about Cape Town soon running out of water, and how much I wanted them to write about this unimaginable yet very real global crisis- WATER SCARCITY! Sensing my urgency to do something about this sad situation, they suggested that I guest-blog on Musings & Mutterings, so here I am!

Folks, no matter how busy we are in leading our oh-so-hectic lives, climate change is happening NOW. And unlike Netflix, we can’t hit pause on this just because we are too busy to deal with it at the moment!
Imagine waking up one morning and being told that you will have access to only 25L of water per day to meet ALL your needs i.e. from brushing, bathing, flushing, car cleaning to cooking, dish-washing to everything. While you are digesting that piece of news, another disturbing fact comes to light - Those 25L of water will not be accessible through taps in your home. You would have to earn it by standing in long public queues every morning. (No, I am not being EXTRA!)

And this is not just for the underdeveloped or developing nations, it might soon apply to the developed nations of this world. This fictional scenario is actually coming to life as the fortunate ones(myself included) sit in the comfort of our fully-equipped houses. One of the world's most favourite tourist destinations is already grappling with this desperate situation. No, it is not some landlocked desert city, but the coastal city of South Africa, Cape Town. Shocking? You bet!

Cape Town

As of 2018 Cape Town is experiencing a water crisis, following a drought that began in 2015, which is said to be the worst the region has experienced in one hundred years. As of 5 March 2018 the city has projected that 'Day Zero' will be reached on 15 June 2018, when most of the city's water will be shut off, and residents will have to queue to collect a water ration of 25 litres per person, per day.

All of us are aware of the 'adjustments' one has to make while living in a big city. For instance, those of us who live in Delhi, cry and complain about the awful air quality, traffic jams, etc, but we have somehow internalized all that and accommodated a place for it in our lives. However, what do you think will happen when the whole city's population is forced to wake up at the crack of dawn to stand in a long queue to access a basic human lifeline i.e. WATER?? Let me list a few grim possibilities off the top of my head on what such a scenario might look like:

1. Elitism will make an appearance here as well, with the VIPs and the rich people throwing their name and power around. They will obviously remain unaffected by this crisis the longest.

2.Meanwhile, some would still not grasp the sense of the gravity of this situation. They’d continue to be audacious enough to consider it a temporary glitch because, Hello? "ये एनवीरोंमेन्टलिस्ट्स बेरोज़गार हैं, तभी  हल्ला कर  रहें है. कुछ  दिन में थक कर भूल जायेंगे और सब नार्मल हो जायेगा "

Screw logic and facts. Geography and ecological balance can take a hike. These are the people who would just shut their eyes and act like there is no problem, thinking that by ignoring the same, it would miraculously go away.
This is exactly how we tackled/are tackling air pollution *Pat on the back*

3. Then there will be complete MORONS:

-People dying of hunger: Continues to waste food
-Not everyone has access to electricity: Leaves every light on in the house, as if every day is Diwali
-There is a scarcity of water: Doesn't affect him/her. Goes on to throw an all-exclusive, invite-only, pool-party!!

4.The honest law abiding AAM-AADMI (a majority of the population): The middle-class citizen would once again be at the receiving end because he has no option. So basically, apart from all the other 'adjustments’, he would now also accommodate the time for the water queues in his schedule because come on! This class is born to work, work and only work.

5. Then those who will bear the brunt first - the POOR FOLKS. They will end up spending hours in line, the time that they could have spent working somewhere to earn hourly wages. Some might even die..... (Demonetization flashback). But this collateral damage is no biggie, right?.

While the poor and the not-so-well connected may be the first ones to be knocked out, the rich, elite and the powerful won't be exceptions/bystanders/onlookers to this crisis.
Everyone will only have themselves to blame for this crisis. Let’s face it, it is because we are too inconsiderate to let go of our long showers or we were too naive to believe that water scarcity is the next generation's problem and not ours, that we have reached such a scary point.

Talking specifically about Delhi, it is a city heavily dependent on groundwater and the table levels have already reached alarmingly low levels. Let us not ignore the stats and start being proactive by cutting down at least one instance of using water recklessly and postpone, if not prevent, this nightmare. 

If nothing is done, the day is not far when you might not be able to afford diamonds water  ..........