by Fatima Hatim Anjary
India, considered a newly industrialized country, with one of the fastest growing economies in the world, faces numerous challenges on the social end. While, on one hand, Brahma Chellaney is chanting slogans of “Positive thinking” and “liberalism”, on the other hand, rape pandemic is spreading across India.
Recently, India witnessed several nerve-wrenching incidents of rape, out of which the most recent were of two minor girls, 9 and 5 years respectively, from Bhopal and New Delhi. Both were gang rape cases committed with a friend as accomplice, while the latter was a result of drinking and watching a porn video on the cell phone.
The Asian Centre for Human Rights reported that child rape cases jumped from 2,113 in 2001 to 7,112 in 2011 in India. Even the latest data of the Union Home Ministry in India suggests that only the United States and South Africa are ahead of India in rape cases. These figures have raised concerns throughout the nation, where people took off to streets, holding signs and chanting angry slogans of “enough is enough” against the government and the police, both of which have failed miserably in curbing the crime, and one after the other, horrifying rape cases have been reported upfront. The inhumane gang rape on 16th December, of a 23 year old student, in a bus, was difficult enough for the people to forget; and the two recent cases have outraged the masses that are criticizing the measures taken by the police as inefficient and insignificant.
According to the National Coordinator for the White Ribbon Alliance, which is a grassroots campaign for women’s health at the U.N., Aparaijita Gogoi said, “Some families restrict women and girls’ mobility because of the risks. The mere thought of keeping them safe is what’s leading many families to keep their young girls home, instead of sending them out for school.” Is this the solution? The 9 year old went to graze cattle, where she was abducted by two men from her village; and the 5 year old was kidnapped while playing in the streets, by a man living in the same vicinity. To what extent will one go to protect little girls to keep them safe? This should be the prior concern of the state to put an end to the horrible series of sexual crimes against women of all ages.
This brings us to the real question! How can one curb and control the heinous crime of rape? What penalty and punishment should the rapist bear? How can one feel safe if he is back in streets after serving some time in prison? Or, as a matter of fact, not caught or persecuted in the first place? What should be done? Enforce stringent laws, efficient police force or ban pornography; as the Indian Ministry is in the process to decide. Even though publishing or distributing it, in print or on the Web, is illegal under the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act of 2000, pornography is spreading rapidly in India due to rapid internet penetration and the spread of smart phones. Google searches for the word “porn”, according to Google Trends, have increased five times between 2004 and 2013 in India. In a recent report in The Wall Street Journal, Susan Fiske, professor of Psychology at Princeton University, gave the findings of the use of MRI scans in 2010 to analyze men watching porn. As a result, their brain activity revealed that they looked at women more as objects than as people. Maybe this explains how men, as individuals and in cases of gang rape, commit such psychopathic criminal acts; it’s because they no more can differentiate between a minor and a woman, a human with blood, flesh and feelings and an innate sexual object. These trends are alarming, and the results of recent researches compel one to ponder upon the reality that viewing pornography has direct effects on the crime rates.
What about one of the biggest revenue generating sectors of India, the Film Industry? There was a time when portrayal of sex, nudity, social unrest and violence was kept out of movie halls under India’s strict laws that were first drafted in 1952 and later amended in 1983. But today, the industry demands a more open-minded approach. In a festival named “Cut-Uncut”, marking 100 years of Bollywood, an official, from the ministry, cried for a fresh approach with changing times. They demanded to stop enforcing old rules, and instead recognize their artistic endeavor, allowing them to be liberal. Does liberalism mean promoting nudity? If the demand is to allow sexually suggestive material, implicit nude scenes and scantily-clad ladies, then I am sorry, I don’t want to be liberal.
The sexual scenes and the obscene hoardings of films around the nation is doing great harm in exciting men, who may or may not have any other outlets for their excitement. These images are vulgar, obscene and should be banned in public. But in contrast, the industry seeks more freedom to promote vulgarity and provocative scenes that could prove detrimental to the sentiments of different religious sects and minorities. With such demands from the film sector and artists, who knows where the Bollywood industry is heading? But one thing is for sure, that India is becoming a victim of obscenity!
Fatima is a university lecturer of Social Science Department and an MS student at Mass Communication. Can be reached at fhanjary@gmail.com