Close on the heels of the demonetisation hoopla, I came across an interesting report in newspapers which spoke about large crowds thronging an ATM in Bhubaneswar. Men and women rushed there after reports circulated that the ATM was extremely generous yielding double the amount asked for while deducting the amount sought from their accounts. I had no idea about the veracity of the news, but it did attract attention. If true, the concerned bank authorities must have set it right.
The moot question here is why people rushed to the ATM to withdraw moneyIJ Plain and simple: They were lured by the thought that they could lay their hands on some extra currency notes which were not theirs as a right.
Very often, we come across pictures on television of people crowding an accident site where a truck carrying biscuit packets, soft drink bottles, fish or even highly inflammable liquids got overturned. They would be swarming the ill-fated vehicle like ants for free takeaways. leave aside the young, I vividly remember an old lady, bent with age, gleefully going home with a Pepsi bottle in hand. Didn’t these people know that what they were looting did not lawfully belong to themIJ Didn’t they realise that the goods strewn around the highway were paid for by someone in a distant city who would suffer huge lossesIJ The answer is that they knew that it was not theirs. But still, they did what they did. The call of their conscience did not matter. It is the same about human beings everywhere. It is a universal truth.
That is exactly the reason why eight-year-olds and young women get raped everywhere in our country. Suddenly, it appears that the country has been infected with an epidemic that causes people to brutalise women. And the accused include all kinds of people, the daily wage earner, students in their teens, teachers in schools and colleges, officials in government offices, people in the tinsel industry and even the lawmakers whom people had voted to office thinking that they were good people.
Once the incident is reported, the Government of the day does make a lot of noise about arresting the culprit, its resolve to stamp out such evil and do a lot more. But nothing happens. The noise is again heard when another case gets reported.
Visuals in the aftermath of the Nirbhaya case, when thousands of people marched the streets of India, kept night long vigil with candles in hand and the resolve of the administrators to set things right, are still fresh in our minds. But things have not improved. It appears to have even gone worse.
One reported incident in the aftermath of the Nirbhaya case comes back to haunt me. This is a report that I read in one of India’s most prominent newspapers. It was about a young woman, a newspaper photographer by profession, who had been assigned to take photographs at a dharna which was being held at Jantar Mantar in Delhi one morning. She reached the venue crowded by protestors, young men and women carrying placards which read ‘Hang the Rapists’, ‘We’ll not tolerate abuse of women’, etc. Soon after she reached Jantar Mantar, the then Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit arrived at the spot. As soon as her car stopped, all the protestors rushed towards her. The lady photographer also ran to the spot with her equipment. Slogans raised by the crowd demanding death for the rapists rent the air as Dixit emerged from the vehicle. Suddenly, the lady photographer could feel that a male standing behind her was trying to grope her. Right at the very spot where the protest was being held! As she turned around, the man quickly melted into the crowd.
Imagine the situation! The man, who had joined hundreds shouting slogans demanding safety and security of women, was himself trying to molest a lady just because he felt he could do it taking advantage of the large crowd. Is this our true characterIJ How many times we have thought so well of a person and put him on a pedestal. Till he does something that shatters our thinking and puts a questionmark on our perception! Why does this happenIJ
It makes one think that there is something inherent in us that makes us do things which we know we should not. Don’t we know that the young woman walking alone on the road could be somebody’s wife or motherIJ Or she could have been engaged to someone and is waiting for her wedding. And something does tell us that any thought of owning her and violating her would be utterly sinful. But still people go ahead and have no qualms about ruining the life of an unsuspecting woman or child.
Here the same thinking comes into play. This man does exactly the same thing what the crowd of people did while rushing to the ATM hoping to get a few bucks extra which did not belong to them. Though a man knows that the woman, who has caught his attention, is not his property, he still wants to lay his hand on her without her consent.
People have been shouting hoarse for enactment of tough laws and severe punishment to end this lawlessness. But the truth is it would hardly work unless there is a change within each one of us.
Education, many argue, is the answer. If everyone has decent education, things will improve and people would behave. But this has failed already. Some of the most corrupt officials who have been proceeded against by the authorities did have the best education. Why are marriages falling apart though both husband and wife have come out of the portals of some of the world’s best colleges and universitiesIJ
Though much has been written about this problem, no one has so far come out with the answer as to what causes this and how it can be countered. Will someone stand up and enlighten usIJ
(The writer is a senior journalist)