Thursday, January 05, 2006

Women at risk in the 21st century!

The recent Meerut incident and the rape and subsequent murder of a Bangalore based call-center employee has made me realise that even in the 21st century, women are not completely safe. Technology wise, India has grown by leaps and bounds in the past 10 years. But that hasnt changed Indian society or mentality, one bit.
It made me furious when I first heard about 'Operation Majnu'. What right do these police men and women have to go around slapping innocent couples? What's wrong if a boy and a girl hold hands? Is it a crime for two friends to spend a few hours together? What an individual does on his/her own time is not the police's business. This kind of moral policing is unheard of in developed countries.
The recent murder of a woman call-center employee in Bangalore was extremely shocking. As opposed to a decade or so ago, more and more women are working these days. The percentage of women in the IT industry has increased as well. Incidents like these may either scare parents into not letting their children work, or scare employers into not recruiting women. Either way, women suffer.
I'm not one of those bra-burning feminists, but I do draw the line somewhere. I will not tolerate a society that does not respect women or treat them with the dignity that every individual deserves. I want to live in a country where a girl can meet her friend or even her boy-friend whenever she wants or wherever she wants; a country where women are not leered at by men, and a country in which a lady who has to go to work in the wee hours, is safe from the clutches of psychotic rapists.