Open Letter to the Delhi Woman CM

Dear Chief Minister of the national capital, Delhi.

I am not sure whether you will even read this email, or even acknowledge it in any way or not. But as a worried citizen of this city, this country, and as a woman who is concerned for her own safety, and for the safety of her friends, family, and her own mother (for as you shall notice rapists that are animals claiming to be 'men' do not discriminate on the basis of age), I am writing this out to you to voice my opinion which is otherwise not given a forum in the state or corporate controlled media that we have today claiming to be the fourth estate of our so called democracy.

Yes, India is a democracy where all castes, classes, and everyone is supposed to be granted equal rights (hence reservation policies galore) and given respect by the laws, except for this poor creature called the woman. Women across classes and castes and social structures suffer the harsh, disgusting, appalling attitudes of men who think they are God's gift to earth and have the right to do whatever they please with whomsoever they please. And who has shaped such attitudes in them? Our patriarchal society, our country's callous laws, poorly structured law enforcement agencies, with no real authority (or even if they do, they don't seem to care much except for filling their protruding stomachs, chewing tobacco, and watching lethargically as the city continues at its own pace).

The frequent sentence given for rape is 10 years of imprisonment, or in certain cases the death penalty. In the capital city of a country which fights and debates over FDI but cannot claim to guarantee basics like food, water, electricity and housing to its own citizens, and guarantee safety to its women (read Honour killings, physical and mental abuse, and the worst of all RAPE), rapes occur at the rate of approximately 635 per year (as of 2012, according to a report in Hindustan Times, dated 18.12.2012). And this figure is probably only those of registered cases, known to the authorities; it does not even include cases where girls, and women are harrassed no end, till at times some of them even go to the extreme of committing suicide to end the painful misery their lives become. What claim does such a country have to call itself a budding superpower and make nuclear deals and debate over FDI on one hand, even as a girl, through no fault of her own, is brutally gang raped, and thrown out onto the streets of Delhi in the cold winter, half naked and in a degrading and horrific condition?

A rape is worse than murder. My biggest fear in life is not to die, because that shall just mean my misery and joys of this life, as I know them, are over. I do not need to suffer anymore. My biggest fear, my nightmare as a woman is to be raped. Because rape affects a woman mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially the most, since our narrow minded society with dogmatic ideas still tends to blame women for their predicament, and not those men who simply cannot keep it in their pants and do not have a strong enough value system to know right from wrong, humanity from torture. Women are blamed if they step out at night, if they step out early morning, if they are not clothed from head to foot in what is seen as ''proper attire'' by our country's distinguished leaders, if they so much as dare to say a word to any man who may be harassing them verbally, or if they take public transport to get home to their families. 

There is a complete and chaotic breakdown of priorities in this nation, which needs to be addressed ASAP or the country's social decline is not far. And believe you me, that does not make a country a superpower, however much you claim the GDP to be growing in numbers.

So first of all, keep castration as a punishment for rapists. Hurt them where it hurts the most. Only then, with such severe extreme punishments, will the future rapists be deterred. Death penalty and life imprisonment doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what a heinous crime they commit. And do not say, what of those accused wrongly. We have a judiciary to make sure no one is accused wrongly, and even it that happens, there are even then murder and other such cases where wrong accusations lead to punishment. But punishment is nevertheless meted out. In Saudi, rapists are stoned to death publicly. That is the kind of humiliation and punishment such men deserve, not measly life imprisonments.

 Make stringent laws and ensure they are properly adhered to (try not completely curbing women's freedom, please, as you do so). Set up fast track courts for rape cases- a long drawn out battle for justice wherein again and again the victim is made to revisit the scene of the horrendous act that was done to her is more mental and emotional torture than we can even imagine. And please, please set up a non-corrupt, efficient transport system in this city. Do not say, there are autos because the auto drivers REFUSE to go anywhere if there is traffic, bleak hope of subsequent fare, too much distance, too much time, too much effort, basically refuse any fare that required them to ferry the passenger anywhere inconvenient to them, also charging exorbitant rates while doing so, not adhering to the meter system. Last I checked the public transport was to 'transport the public from one place to another' and not to give them extra headache and inconvenience. Half the time, people do not get transport, as was the case with this girl who waited to get an auto back to her home, for over an hour and a half, until ultimately she decided to climb aboard the fateful bus, that too late in the night. 

Please, I implore you to make this case exemplary, by providing prompt justice, and strict, severe punishment to the rapists so that this evil is curbed otherwise, the future is extremely dark and hopeless, full of anguish, fear, misery and possibly dissent, even.

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Regards,
A concerned citizen and a woman becoming increasingly paranoid for her safety.