Women’s safety

Crimes against women are a blot on our conscience and we must spare no effort to punish the perpetrators of such crimes. The protection of women from all forms of abuse and oppression is now a national duty and a national task. The status of women in India needs the continuous attention of the government, civil society; all those who are role models must play an important role in shaping public opinion, thus aiding in the evolution of collective and combined efforts to ensure the safety, security and dignity of women of our country (Editorial, “National shame”, December 4).

Bhubaneswar, Odisha

Every society, when confronted with conscience-jolting and repugnant acts of depravity, reacts with vindictive anger and revulsion. But the howls of vigilantist fury that reverberated through the Parliament’s chambers stood apart for their immaturity and impetuosity. The cry for tougher and tougher laws to deter crimes against women is a refusal to disentangle rape from the law and order framework. The lawmakers did not even bother to discuss rudimentary women-friendly safety protocols to deter opportunistic crime such as proper lighting in public spaces, reliable public transport and visible presence of the guardians of the law during odd hours of the night. One expected our parliamentarians to grapple with the multiple and deep-rooted social and cultural dimensions of atrocities against women. Keeping women’s safety a hostage to the ebb and tide of shifting public frenzy and media publicity will divert attention away from the need to initiate transformational legislation such as the Women’s Reservation Bill. The pervasive blindness to the correlation between power asymmetry and gender inequality has tragic consequences.

V.N. Mukundarajan,

Thiruvananthapuram