Terror in Sin City

Just days after a college student was gangraped by members of the President8217;s Body Guard, in the week of the shocking rape at the International Film Festival of India IFFI, forget for a moment that Neelam Kapur is the festival director. She8217;s also a woman. Ask her if she worries about her own safety in Delhi, and she replies, 8216;8216;As a woman you always live in that slightly fearful zone where you expect that the worst could happen.8217;8217;

And so, this bureaucrat who would be counted among Delhi8217;s privileged never rolls down her car window at a traffic light 8216;8216;even if the AC is not working8217;8217;, makes sure the door is always locked, keeps her cellphone within easy reach, and avoids lonely areas at night.

She also insists that her two daughters should not use public transport to college. 8216;8216;Because in Delhi, you can always expect the worst.8217;8217;

Advocates of fair play would say big cities everywhere are rough on women. But we hear it all the time anyway 8212; that Delhi is unsafe for women. According to the National Crime Records Bureau NCRB, there were 394 rapes reported in Delhi in 2001, and 403 in 2002. In Chandigarh, the figures for 2001 and 2002 were 18 each.

Naysayers will point to the difference between the populations of Delhi and Chandigarh as proof that statistics never tell the whole story.

So try this for a more illuminating figure. In 2002, the highest number of rape cases 2,256 were reported from Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh8217;s population is approximately 6.03 crore while Delhi8217;s is 1.40 crore. Your calculator will tell you that the ratio of number of rapes to population in Delhi and in Madhya Pradesh are not very different.

Urdu poet Kamna Prasad was visiting Kathmandu when the IFFI rape happened. Her patriotic fervour, she says, compelled her to defend her city staunchly. But back home she8217;s not so benevolent. 8216;8216;Every city in the world has its rough areas,8217;8217; she says, 8216;8216;but Delhi is scary because this can occur at an international film festival, in a posh locality. Men commit rape because they are sick in the head. But here they also do it because they know they can get away with it.8217;8217;

Theories 8212; expert and amateur 8212; about Delhi8217;s poor attitude to women abound. The one you hear most often is Delhi suffers because of the low status of women in surrounding areas such as Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

There8217;s also the one about the large floating population. There8217;s also a consensus that women feel less secure because the city police can8217;t be trusted.

Akhila Sivadas of the Centre for Advocacy and Research points to another factor, 8216;8216;In Delhi, there has always been hostility towards upper class women and complete contempt for rank and file of women. Sexual harassment in public places is a public expression of that contempt.8217;8217;

But what does a man do with that feeling when in the past two decades he has witnessed a sizeable section of women shifting gears from dependent wives and mothers to independent professionals?

Says Mary E. John, deputy director of the Women8217;s Studies programme at Jawaharlal Nehru University, 8216;8216;Sometimes men see women working, living independently and that could lead to insecurity and resentment.8217;8217; As psychiatrists point out, lust is usually secondary. The desire to give vent to that resentment by sexually dominating a powerful woman, is primary.

8216;8216;Women in Delhi have made a dramatic transition in the past 10-15 years and men can8217;t cope,8217;8217; says Jitendra Nagpal, consultant psychiatrist with the Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences. Nagpal divides Delhi rapists into two categories: the powerful, spoilt-brats-of-rich-dads and sons-of-politician, sure they can get away with it; and the impoverished or at least not-so-influential ot who might see rape as a means of asserting their dominance in society and over the other sex.

Incidentally, the police insist the increase in figures for rape in Delhi are primarily the result of 8216;8216;more people coming forward to report them8217;8217;.

Cynical Delhiites may dismiss this as an excuse, but Mary John of JNU errs on the side of the law-enforcers. She says: 8216;8216;People are more willing to report cases and less parents feel their daughter8217;s life will be ruined if the case is reported.8217;8217; She also points out that women are becoming more assertive while dealing with sexual harassment in public places.

Although awareness campaigns among women seem inadequate, it helps that the Delhi Police have been organising self-defence workshops. 8216;8216;More than 4,000 college students and women have so far been trained. But the Social Welfare Department should also take this up,8217;8217; says DCP Crime Depender Pathak.

Adds Joint Commissioner of Police Crime Against Women Cell Vimla Mehra, 8216;8216;An increase in conviction will definitely act as a deterrent.8217;8217; But beyond that, 8216;8216;We must train men to respect women. This awareness has to start at home, in schools and colleges.8217;8217;

It took the rape of a diplomat for the authorities to increase the number of police around Siri Fort auditorium and set up bright lights in the parking lots. Will the alertness wane when the outrage dies down?

Society8217;s usual reaction down the ages has been to curb women in the guise of protecting them. Men might be tempted by female beauty ergo women must wear a veil. Male customers might misbehave ergo bar girls must not work late.

Heed the words of Akanksha Joshi, that brave young film maker who was attacked outside Siri Fort barely an hour after the rape, and who showed amazing presence of mind by throwing away her car keys, preventing her attackers from driving away with her.

8216;8216;Something like this has a direct effect on women,8217;8217; she said, 8216;8216;especially on the home front when we are just clamped down upon. The idea is to survive and not get scared. After all, the streets belong to us as well.8217;8217; The streets, the film festival, the world 8230;