Many activists exploit cases that offer publicity
The death of a five-year old girl, who was brutally raped in Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh, has caused barely a ripple among social activists and commentators that have been in the forefront of various agitations in the national Capital to protest the rising sex crimes against women. Neither has anybody come out on the streets nor have there been candle-light marches. The Seoni rape victim too was as much of a ‘Gudiya' as the child who was brutalised in Delhi recently — and over which incident huge protests were organised across the Capital. The agitators had then demanded death for the rapist and the scalp of senior police officers, including the Delhi Police Commissioner. But, now we don't see a similar outrage over the Seoni case. Is it because the incident was too far off from the base of our activists and social commentators to relate toIJ Is it because the activists did not find any ‘news value' in the incident that happened in a distant landIJ Or, is it that the activists only get energised when tragedy strikes in Delhi, which, being the country's epicentre, offers the best occasion for media coverageIJ Of course, it would be unfair to say that all activists work only for the sake of publicity. There are many non-Government organisations which are doing tremendously good work in various parts of the country in the area of child and women welfare and fighting for the dignity of these citizens. But it is also equally true that many activists take up causes that are designed to give them optimum publicity, because good media coverage opens the doors to greater funding for these activists and their organisations. It is not a coincidence that such activists vigorously align with causes which get wide space in the media. Seoni's ‘Gudiya’ did not attract that media attention — at least not to the extent that the Delhi five-year old, who is thankfully recovering, did. Of course, not all Delhi-based events catch the attention. A case in point is that of a six-year old girl who was found in a public toilet with severe wounds all over her body following a sexual assault. Yet another six-year old was raped by a rickshaw-puller in another part of Delhi.
It does appear that rape incidents which have the potential to implicate police personnel or politicians are rather swiftly seized upon by activists and commentators to generate a public outcry, while the others are left aside. Given the pathetic and often criminal functioning of the police and the political system that has significantly contributed to the rising sex crimes against women and girl children, it becomes easy to generate public outrage against the politician-police system. While such sentiments may be justified and must be aroused to bring about changes and fix accountability, we must remember that every single victim deserves justice and every single incident demands the attention of influence-peddlers. In the end, the issue is one of a social challenge as well.