It is her fault, yet again.
This time the disquisition came from Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, where a student of a private medical college in Durgapur was allegedly gangraped on October 10. The second year MBBS student from Odisha, who is undergoing treatment at present, had gone out to eat with a friend from her hostel.
However, the CM asked why she was out late in the night. “The girl was studying in a private medical college. Whose responsibility is it in a private college? How did she come out at 12:30 am,” the CM said. Putting the onus on the private medical college, Banerjee said the institution shouldn’t allow girls to be out late in the night.
The Opposition pounced on it in no time, crying about lawlessness in Bengal under the Trinamool Congress government.
Do you see a pattern? A heinous crime takes place against a woman or girl, shattering her physically and mentally, and traumatising her. But every time, every single time, the blame somehow makes its way to the woman and holds her back, preventing her from reclaiming her ground.
Who gains? Petty politics and pettier politicians. And who loses? Only her. If she survives.
Even in the case of the 2012 Delhi gangrape of a 22-year-old paramedical student, which triggered a tsunami of protests over the lack of women’s safety in India, a similar question was raised: “Why was she out late with a male friend?” The attempt at character assassination came even as she was battling brutal injuries, trying to hold on to her life; a battle she lost.
Why are predators who masquerade as men out late in the night? And if thieves commit daylight robbery, will the solution be to shut all shops during the day?
A child misbehaves, it is the “mother’s fault”. A state’s culture is “doomed” when its women wear short dresses for a beauty pageant. A girl raises her voice against a stalker, she “invites” trouble.
Please, Ms CM. There’s enough policing going on in women’s life — from what to wear, what to eat, how to conduct themselves in public to how to talk, how to laugh, how to raise children.
All she needs is some assurance, especially from a woman head of the state, that “this land is yours too”. The stars, the moonlit night, the darkest days as much as the sunlit mornings, the beaches, the riverfront, the colleges and offices. Let her breathe and live her life with dignity.
Evil lurks everywhere for women. Whether it be day or night. The solution is not keeping women locked up at night or covering them from head to toe. Treat crimes against women with zero tolerance. Fast-track all such cases. Award the strictest of punishment to those involved. Let the state’s action prove to be the deterrent; not clipping of the girls’ wings.
yamini.nair@expressindia.com
