Crime against women - Round up

I was really angry this morning (its about a girl), and after I got to work and was reading up on all the online news headlines, I came across a news item which made me even angrier. Somewhere in Madurai, a father-in-law burnt his daughter-in-law alive because he was not in favour of his son marrying her. So one day when the son was out, the swine father-in-law snuck in, beat her up with an iron rod and set fire to her. Her little child was burnt too and is battling for her life in a hospital.

Now when this happens, what punishment can this man, nay, virus, be given but that which completely wipes him out from the face of this planet? Can such people be shown any mercy? Unfortunately, the history of humankind is replete with millions of such in'human' acts, most of which go unreported. Crime against the weaker sections of society, especially such gruesome crimes which involve grievous physical harm happen every day, unfortunately, is the universal truth of human society. Earlier it was war, now you can add exploitation to it.

History is replete with great examples of the gravest injustices and crimes committed against women and children, and for all our modernity today, they continue unabated, whether it be human trafficking in India and rest of the world, rape of women in war-torn African regions, or stoning of women for being women in sick societies such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, and some Arab and Islamic nations. I was just telling somebody this the other day, and I will write it here though I know I am probably repeating myself - a society that can't take care of its women and children has no right to progress, and will not progress. Sick, perverted people are everywhere, but as a modern society, if we can protect a vast majority of our women and children and also the aged, I think we will have done acceptably well for ourselves.

But it is far from the truth because while such news will be reported regularly because it will be impossible to restrain every father, mother, brother, sister, in-law or uncle or aunt or whatever from turning into an animal, what is most appalling in this country is the absolute lack of fear of the consequences, and that is where our society absolutely fails in its ability to create any repercussions - social or economic or criminal - for such acts committed daily in every corner of the country.  In fact, in the same newspaper, another news was about a raid on a drug rehabilitation center that ran outside the city of Bangalore in a farm, but the state of the inmates there was worse than the animals that were kept there once. The inmates were humiliated and lived in appalling conditions, and without the presence of any doctors, counsellors or any other trained help at the site. In fact, this is the not the first time I have come across news of exploitation at rehabilitation and other centers such as orphanages, destitute centers and centers for women. I have heard of harrowing stories of children and women being sexually exploited at such such centers by politicians and policemen and I can never erase what I heard that day from my mind.  

Browsing through the online news, I realized that today's tabloid media thrives on such news. These "human interest" stories are what keep the general, slowly dumbing down population interested. Other news items reported illustrating our barbarian society's attitude include 2 youth in Lucknow setting fire to a girl who resisted their rape attempt (if the girl is dalit, the crime becomes heinous, but otherwise it'll probably go unreported by the Indian media), a man help for raping his step-daughter and two youth in Nagpur found guilty of raping and killing a 4 year old girl.

Lets bring in all the robots, all the fast cars and jet planes, all the television sets with HD, but a human being's mentality will not change ever.