Capital shame

The Delhi Police can prove through its latest statistics that the incidence of crimes against women in their city has actually declined. But...

The Delhi Police can prove through its latest statistics that the incidence of crimes against women in their city has actually declined. But ask the women who live and work in Delhi and they will have another story to relate. On Friday, a young medical student who was crossing the road in front of her college campus, was forcibly removed to a monument close by and raped by three men 8212; under the full glare of the afternoon sun, right in the centre of the city, not too far from the headquarters of the most powerful police force in the country.

So one of the big questions that has emerged from this latest shocker is precisely this: why do police perceptions of crimes against women differ so markedly from the lived experience of the victims of such crime? Could it just be that the police are more concerned about protecting their image than the women residents of Delhi?

Today, it seems, apathy has so inundated the system that nothing really shocks the average person anymore.

Some 20 years ago, violence against women was one of the great themes of public discourse. In fact, at one point, four professors of Delhi University were driven to write an open letter severely criticising a Supreme Court judgement that let off the rapists of a young tribal girl. Their outrage echoed throughout the country. There were loud calls for making laws more efficient, the police force more effective, judges more sensitive, women more aware. Alas, no longer. Apathy has ensured that nobody feels outraged anymore 8212; not even college professors. Yet, if such crimes are not to proliferate it would demand an outpouring of public outrage, a clear signal from ordinary people that there will be zero tolerance for such acts.

The young batchmates of the student who was assaulted expressed their sense of outrage on Monday. They would, ordinarily, have been poring over their books and preparing frantically for their examinations. Now they say they will not rest until the guilty are brought to book and the authorities treat such crimes with the seriousness they deserve. Will their sense of injury be redressed? Delhi must answer this question otherwise the barbarian at its gate will emerge victorious yet again.