ShameON! ‘shame’ is a very human attribute. Indeed, we have
been put on through a system of ‘shame’ and fear to ensure that the social eco
system remains very human. From the childhood, the female child is taught to
remain self-conscious through continuous preaching about right seating posture,
right way to walk, to remain ‘untouched’ from other gender ect. But
interestingly, the male child in India is encouraged to be more radical and
‘outspoken’, which depicts the prodigal symbolism of a powerful and aggressive
man in making! He is encouraged to compete, fight to go ahead… and nobody
preaches them on ‘right seating position’ (other than shaming him for scoring
low in exam!). So, eventually, the child
becomes a man and he is not self-conscious about his ‘de-shaped’ appearance or
aggressive nature towards female; but he is being aware of other gender’s
‘shame points’. In a report at TOI
(2007) it was observed that over 53% children in India face sexual abuse! Am
sure, the number must have been considerably gone up now. Unfortunately, a few
years back, proving sexual molestation was a gigantic task cause in many cases
evidences were erased and cleansed. But today, the youth in India are equipped
with smart technologies which is indeed a boon . They are also quick thinkers,
impulsive decision makers and socially connected.
Two of my Facebook screen
captures show how shaming the molesters and sexual offenders in social media
can effect the culprits and their social status (if they are well placed or
mature enough to understand the implication of being defamed in public).
Also, the viral video showing how the two brave girls beating up molesters became a rage, online:
Recently, Govt. of India declared that it has a plan to
create an all India registry for child molesters that will name and shame them.
Laudable approach but requires imploration to find its impact. In the year 2013 Delhi Police on put out names of all sexual offenders who have been convicted from 1983 onwards on its website. The list, put up by the crime branch, has over 600 names on it. Well, after that the number of rapes have not gone down anyway! Why, even after public shaming the incidents are taking place?
Though the argue over the facts and figures on whether rape
is an urban phenomenon or not, but all the recent incidents which appeared in
media seems to be largely focused towards one prominent direction: most of the
culprits are from the lower strata of the society (urban or rural). Which
means, they might not have much to lose even if their photos and activities
appear online (a social class, who are not bothered/ being part of digital revolution)! Neither their parents or partners will ever believe that the
offenders indeed were the main culprit (in the case of Delhi Gang rape accused)
rather they will strongly argue that the men were ‘framed’ because he belonged
to the lower part of the social eco system! According to a blog, the mother of Delhi rape accused stated “No woman, nobody, ever complained to me even in a dream that my son had harassed a woman” she said and started sobbing. The neighbors of the accuse's family stated that “Thora bohot aadmi log ka haath tou lag jaata hain,", As if men’s hands were naturally made to beat women!
Over it, with the paradoxical democracy,
that India faces today the political game makers will skew it toward their
benefit and divide the people in multiple variants (caste, economy, region and religion). Over it, the human rights activists will jump in to save the culprits citing their family and economic status.
Indian judiciary is magically slow decision maker. A case,
in average takes more than a decade to close if one fights well through the
loopholes of judiciary system. It took
14 years after schoolgirl Hetal Parekh's rape and murder for the man held
responsible, Dhananjoy Chatterjee, to be brought to justice. Part of the reason
was that the government had apparently forgotten about the case for a decade
(the Indian Express report, 2012)! Over it, there are multiple channels to
appeal. Till the verdict is announced one is supposed to be considered as ‘not
guilty’. Hence, I wonder how many of ‘child molesters’ are actually declared by
Indian court as so, to be listed. Meanwhile, the victim and her parents are
shamed on due to over-glaring media attention! In case of Hetal Parekh, the
parents went underground to avoid media and curious people. The Telegraph in
the year 2004 wrote “their flat at Jamuna Mahal, an apartment block in Santa
Cruz East where Nagardas Parekh and his wife have lived for 13 years since
Hetal’s death, has been off limits for visitors from soon after the verdict. But
to avoid the world’s eyes and the media glare, the elderly couple have now fled
to an undisclosed destination.” So, who’s Shamed? The victim, their parents or
the accused? Why the accused (male gender, mostly) are proud enough to appear
in front of camera, pose and talk aloud about their crime and still accuse
victim that it was her fault “the girl who roams around at night is not a good
girl” (delhi gang rape accused commented in the documentary). The shame of
being raped is so deep that many victims go underground or commits suicides.
The only case in recent years where a victim was bold enough to appear in front
of camera and fight was Suzette Jordan, the ‘park street rape victim’. Her
fight was exemplary where even the locally popular female political leader
(Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar) tagged her as
prostitute!
The ‘shaming’, if implied in a balanced social eco system
works wonder, cause it can curb criminal offences at large (specially sexual
offenders from higher social strata), but if, the criminal has ‘nothing to
lose’ from humiliation and in turn becomes famous/ infamous with over pouring
media attention (which even many terrorist groups look for) with family support
(who claims conspiracy for framing the ‘grassroot’) and sluggish judiciary
system (which can keep a criminal safely guarded in jail at tax payers expanses
for several years) then there is a chance that the same can boomerang and in
turn try to deface the victims (who is being taught to ‘be aware of their
status in society as a female’) and their immediate family (effecting the
parents and other siblings of the victim). The recent whatsapp videos shared by
criminals themselves prove that the social shaming do have a gender bias in
India (the men clearly showed their faces, smiled at camera and gang-raped the
victim.. over it shared the video at whatsapp!
But, digitally putting up photos and videos of the culprits
indeed is a good tool to expose the individuals to the society and in turn curb
them from further such activities.
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