The brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedic student in a moving bus in the heart of Delhi on December 16, has not only triggered unprecedented student and middle class angst against the incident per se, it has also focussed a powerful searchlight on an important civilisational issue ignored for too long in post-independence India: the rising incidence of sexual harassment and molestation of women citizens. A recent Thomson Reuters Foundation global poll numbered India among the five most dangerous places for women — in the ignoble company of Afghanistan, Congo, Pakistan and Somalia. Curiously, similarly shameful data on child malnutrition, rule of law, unenforcibility of contracts, access to sanitation etc which places India in rock-bottom position worldwide, seems to make no impact upon our self-serving establishment, which on the contrary brazenly demands superpower and United Nations security council status for India. But while the unprecedented fury and revolt has served the useful purpose of revealing the ugly face of the establishment, there is clear and present danger that in the heat of anger and emotionalism a real opportunity to deter, abate and severely punish crimes against women and children will be missed. This is reflected in pervasive misdiagnosis of the causes of the rising wave of gender crimes in Indian society which has its epicentre in the Union and state government budgets and education systems. Shockingly, neither indignant citizens nor media pundits seem to be aware that the number of police personnel per 100,000 people in India is a mere 130 against the world average of 222, and 976 in Russia, 552 in Italy, 369 in France and 233 in the US. Moreover the number of judges per 100,000 people in India is a measly 10.5 against 105 in the US and 55 in the UK. To these dismal statistics, factor in the reality that almost 30 percent of police personnel are assigned for VIP security, and that criminal and civil procedure codes which govern the country’s courtrooms haven’t changed for a century, and the causes of the collapsed police and justice systems become plainly apparent. Therefore to seize the opportunity and effectively take arms against the tide of gender crimes destabilising Indian society, the educated middle class and intelligentsia in particular need to rise to the challenge and press for budgetary allocations to double the number of police personnel and judges. In addition, substantial sums have to spent on training police-persons in forensics, gender sensitisation and other life skills. But it’s foolish to expect gains without pain. Therefore expenditure under other budgetary heads and unmerited subsidies (on higher education for instance) have to be reduced and higher taxes have to be tolerated. While demanding the death penalty and severe punishment for rape and gender crimes may result in emotional catharsis, there’s no substitute for a cold, hard analysis of the ecosystem — covering school curriculums and Bollywood films — to abate the gender crimes wave which is shaming and destroying India. Meanwhile more boots on the ground and…
