Encroachment on the Body

In spite of protests, public disapproval, and quite a number of laws, encroachment is a regular affair in India. Enforcement of laws is very weak, political interference hampering it more often than not. We have encroachment on public land and private property, forest land and sandy beaches, mighty hills and resourceful rivers, and on so many other fronts. But now we have crossed all civilized barriers. If the not so distant past and very recent events are an indication, we are a society that is increasingly trampling on the last frontier of life itself: the human body.

The Guwahati incident of the molestation of a teenage girl by a crowd of males in full public view was a matter of shame. Irrespective of the circumstances of time and place in which the incident occurred, the assault has been condemned all over, and rightly so. The alleged culprits have been arrested. The electronic media has displayed the incident to one and all. The argument is that by recording and displaying, the arrest of the culprits has been facilitated which might not have been easy otherwise. The question of the incident itself having been orchestrated by the television channel is being investigated.  Shock and shame, it has brought about. But has there been any restraint on those others with a similar criminal bent of mind? The answer is an emphatic no.

While the public condemnation of the first incident is still being aired and printed, another similar, even worse, incident has taken place near Maddur railway station in Karnataka, where a teenage girl was sexually harassed by four young men. Lewd remarks along with attempts to molest have been attributed to the group of four.  When the girl protested and threatened to inform the police, they are reported to have grabbed her and pushed her out of the moving train. The girl survived the fall only because she fell on the dry bed  of the Shimsha river, as reported in a leading national daily. The co-passengers watched the ugly scene without making any attempt to stop the incident.

In both the above cases, in quick succession, the group of men became more aggressive, instead of restraining themselves, after the girls protested and went on the defensive. Was their big but weak male ego hurt by the resistance? Or was it mob behavior where decency is dead? Where one mob attacks and the larger mob watches the tamasha?  In both cases there was none that stood up to stop the encroachment on the human body of the victim! After the incident in the train, the other passengers are said to have beaten up the culprits, and reported the matter to the police. If not for the dry river bed on which she fell, the poor girl might have been dead. This happened in Karnataka, where the infamous Ram Sena is active in defending culture in an uncultured manner. It would be in the fitness of things if the Sena could do something to tame the wild instincts of the molesters among men before targeting women. I would then recommend the Sena for a national bravery award for protecting our culture.

It happens many times, in many places, that those serving the nation in defense and police establishments encroach on the rights and dignity of those they are paid to protect and defend. Another teenage girl would have become the target of molestation allegedly by personnel from the army in the Sivasagar area of  Assam if not for the villagers who intervened to stop the evil. The inhabitants of remote Indian villages have traditionally shown more courage in defending their dignity and pride while the rest of us only  display our indignation.

The three incidents, I have mentioned above, are only indicative. The malaise is deeper and much more widespread. Those who travel in  crowded buses and overcrowded trains know better than words can tell. It is a daily nightmare for some, specially in the cities and towns. We have never taken this form of encroachment with the seriousness that it deserves. Our laws are archaic and full of loopholes. Our law enforcement agencies are far, far below normal expectations. It is only citizen’s groups, non-government organizations and the powerful media that can take up the public cause, and force the authorities to respond. It is happening in Sivasagar, Assam. More than twenty organizations have come forward to protest in an unusual way against the government for not punishing the army personnel involved in the molestation. The hope lies in more and more people getting involved in demonstrating their solidarity for a just cause.

Public intervention and protest are important, but these alone may not solve the problem. We  also need to look into our way of life and the ways of the media.

Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 29.07.2012