Dear Nirbhaya, we are waiting for surgical strike on rape culture as well
This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant
Dear Nirbhaya,
I will not apologize for what happened to you. I know it was atrocious and what those ‘men’ did was tremendously heinous, yet I will not. Because apologies always meant that, we are saying in under breath that ‘we will not repeat it again’. However, have we ceased with you? No.
December 16, 2013 has been written in black bold letters in Indian history. Yet did you think that scenario would change? Did the people who became a part of candle march change? Did the society change? The answer remains the same. No.
Indian Express in “2015: Average of 6 Rapes, 15 molestations each day”, dated January 5, 2016 showed that 2015 showed the highest number of cases in past 15 years. Nirbhaya, Delhi became the rape capital.
Defying Saudi laws – Muslim woman arrested for not wearing veil
We called you Nirbhaya, which means ‘fearless’ but we do not see you as one. You will remain a victim.
Do you know why we still call you as Nirbhaya?
Why do we not have the audacity to say your name, publicly? You know why. Reason being the real name would bring shame to the family. It is not only about you, government has awarded your parents with much pleasures at least it was reported so. But, you know what there would have been thousands of Nirbhaya who faced similar or even worse sort of savagery, still nothing happened. The family must have backed off to save the ‘honor’ or maybe not to go through worse torture perpetrated by society and police.
It is not just those five who are responsible for your rape, we all are contributing in raping each and everyone. We deprived you and many more Nirbhaya of the justice by calling them victim, instead of the one who survived the atrocity. Each of you were shamed as if you were at fault. Someone told Nirbhaya that she should have called them “bhaiya”, as if that would have stopped them. Some people went to the extent of blaming junk food, like chowmein. The sky had no limits to blame the girls. So is the abuse on girls.
But nobody ever thought before telling his or her kids “don’t cry like a girl”. Or when you told your sister or daughter, “come back home soon. It’s not safe”, were you not being a part of society only? How did you allow your brother or son for that late night movie or those night outings while girls need to be safeguarded?
Nirbhaya, I can just stand with your mother who refuses to pay homage to you. Until the day the violence and subjugation of females does not stop, every letter, every homage paid and each drop of tear is just a waste. Nevertheless, in which dreamland I am living.
