My country is on a witch-hunt against its women and every day breaks my spirit more.
I have so much anger inside me that my hand shakes while writing this. There is a protest happening in the national capital region of India, which no political party feels important to align themselves with. Three rape cases have been reported in 24 hours:a 6-year-old girl, an 11-year-old girl, and a 17-year-old girl, and I am only talking about Delhi. The women marching in this protest have their faces covered lest they get persecuted. Persecuted for asking for the right to live safely in one of the biggest democracies in the world.
To not be sexually assaulted in India is a matter of luck. We would swap stories in my engineering hostel of when and what age and sadly realise that everyone of us had an anecdote.
Every time I take an Uber, I share the live location to my relatives. I choose costlier flats to rent because they are in gated societies. I buy pepper spray as a regular purchase and give it to my female relatives. I am the privileged section of society who has accepted that we have to pay the tax of ‘being a woman’.
I rue the day I was born in this country where half the population is still fighting for basic dignity. I wish some political party fought for our rights even at the cost of our gender being reduced to a vote bank or political pawns.
Women here are a catalyst, a commodity to be traded, a source to satisfy your deviant wishes, a baby factory, and an object to be discarded. Just look back to the two biggest mythological sagas in Hinduism. The events in Ramayana and Mahabharata did not kick in the highest gear till Sitaji got abducted and Draupadi got disrobed. Still what do we have to complain about, we have multiple festivals celebrating and worshipping women goddesses.
I think that’s why we forgot to treat women as people.
As a tax-paying woman, today, my rights to roam around in the parks of my country’s capital are curtailed. The same city that hosted BRICS, Commonwealth games and so many international events. We treat foreign guests better than our own women. Hell, our cows are treated better than our women. Our political parties have enough money to pay off citizens during election season, but not enough money to repair broken street lights. I used to feel so disgusted that the state I hail from tops the list in female foeticide. Now, I am not so sure even I would want to give birth to a daughter.