Sad demise following the brutal rape of the 23 year old Delhi woman has angered

the nation and aroused emotions rarely seen in our nation of 1.2 billion people. The
anger, frustration and deep despise of the authorities and politicians is a result of
years of pent up emotion of helplessness which suddenly found voice in the near
unanimous call for death penalty for the perpetrators of this heinous crime. Given
this spontaneous out poring of emotion of the Indian youth, it is now time to pause
and ponder as to how this rightful emotion can be channeled into a fruitful action, to
lift this great country to ever higher glory as an example of participative democracy.
If we were to eradicate such instances of atrocities on women in particular and
emaciated populace in general, we need to first examine the root causes that
underlie these acts. This requires deep analysis of the socio-economic and politicolegal factors that enable the men to perpetrate such acts we unfortunately are
witnessing in this incident and many such other that go unregistered in the public
conscience which may be several times more brutal in the continued brutalization of
the victim by social ostracism.
Let us analyze the Delhi incidence dispassionately. The antagonists in this are poorly
educated, migrant workers eking out a mere existence in menial jobs. They are
almost always in an unorganized sector with little or no social safety nets. They are
brought up and live in a setting dated to decades old patriarchal social norm where
women exist in servitude to men. Leave aside rights their very existence is
dependent on this servitude. Thus all manner of atrocities are endured as their fate.
These men living on the fringes of modern society are themselves subject to
inhuman working conditions to somehow continue their mere existence. These men
then find a release in carrying out such atrocities on beings whom they see as lower
in the social order, that is women, with complete immunity as their acts are not
often countered and punished. The atrocities on women by this section of society is
often directed on the women form within their section and sometimes extends to
outside their milleu. Drunken state must have contributed by reducing any sense of
fear that is already diminished by the social milieu they live in, in extending such
behaviour to a member outside their societal setting. Rapid urbanization removed
the checks and balances existing in rural areas and urban slums have not been able
to develop the social structure to enforce the social rules. Given this, how do we
ensure we address atrocities on women by men from this social order. The solution
is both socio-economic and politico-legal. The most important need here is social
reform to develop this section of the society
Let us now extend the discussion to atrocities on women seen in many social circles
with men, usually nouveau rich, power bloated, male chauvinists almost always with
backing of politicians, bureaucrats or local satraps cocking a snook at accepted
norms of society and rules of the land. They actually thrive on using the state
machinery to their own ends. These men usually target women from outside their
social strata lacking in power and thus vulnerable. These elements are more
dangerous as they use their position is society and money to crush the victim into

submission often killing the persons will to fight the atrocity they have to endure,
sometimes repeatedly. They actually corrupt the societal values and systems to the
extent that the societal set up soon turns into anarchic jungle rule of power. We
have seen several instances of atrocities on women of this type but many more
actually go unregistered, due to the abject surrender of the victim to her plight, with
seemingly no source of rectitude. This menace is growing given the stage of
development in India. We need to firmly deal with this and reform the political and
administrative systems to eradicate these elements from the society.
Third and last variety of men who commits such acts are rich, smart and suave
individuals.
i)

ii)

iii)

Organize such workers carrying out menial jobs such as drivers, gardeners,
porters. The organization need not be by government and could be in private
sectors. Make it mandatory that hiring of all such persons has to be through
an agency, such as maid agencies in Singapore. The government controls
these agencies for compliance to working conditions, continuing education &
training, fair remunerations and discipline. This will overtime reform this
section of the society to integrate into the higher social order.
Strengthen the Police by implementing the Padmanabhaiah committee on
police reforms recommendation immediately and institute another
committee to introduce further reforms especially in the areas of
Politicization and Criminalization of Police, Control over Police, Accountability
of Police.
Improve justice deliverance by implementing judicial reforms.