RAPE - HOW DO WE STOP IT? A SUGGESTION

 RAPE - HOW DO WE STOP IT? A SUGGESTION

“Kutta, Haramzada where is Surjit? He assured me there was no need to use protection. Call him. I want to kill him,” shouted Rani in extreme pain in the next room as I had just gone to sleep. I thought it might be another of those theatrics of 'Lahorian da Mohalla' similar to Balraj Singh, who shouted at the top of his voice for a major part of the evening. After half a bottle down his throat, he was shouting, "Kutteo Logo Ram Japo (dirty people, pray to God).”

I was cursing my father for asking me to fetch something from my pind wala ghar, where I got stuck as the buses stopped plying after six during that time of disturbance in Punjab in the early eighties. Rani and her husband Surjit were living in one of the rooms of our house as tenants after they had eloped two years ago.

The noise subsided and I slipped into my sleep. Half an hour later, I heard Rani scream. It was so shrill that it pierced through my heart. I rushed out of the room to inquire. I found some old ladies and asked them to take Rani to the hospital. They laughed at me. One of them said, “This is the problem with children studying in angreji schools.”

Ignoring that comment, I again asked them to take Rani to the hospital. Just then, we heard another scream from Rani. It appeared that someone was torturing Rani. On my insistence to look up Rani and seeing the lines of worry on my face, an old lady stepped forward and took me to the side. She said, “Son, it is the case of childbirth. The midwife is already here. Rani is having labour pain. It will continue for three to four hours. It is a natural process and there is nothing to worry about. You go to your room and try to sleep. Generally, the males in the house are sent away during childbirth. Since you are new to the place, we cannot send you to any house.”

I walked to my room to lie on my bed. The commotion and cries in the next room were incessant. At one point, it appeared that someone was dismembering her body parts. I felt like a helpless person sitting in a slaughterhouse. It was only at half past two that I got some relief when the child was born.

Everyone was happy that a baby boy was born, but my adolescent mind had taken a vow that I would not get married. Of course, that vow got washed away in the hormonal flood. But from that day, my respect for my mother went up a hundredfold. And for the respect for womenfolk, it increased at least four times. Till that day, I only knew that women made a household better. They are a perennial source of love and affection. But today, I realised that after bearing great pain, they are propagators of the human race. Thus, all females need to be revered, respected, admired and protected.

In the morning, the same old lady offered me sweets for the birth of the baby boy. I asked her, “I hope the same sweets would have been distributed if a baby girl was born?”

She laughed and said, “No one distributes sweets at the birth of a girl.”

I asked, “Is the labour pain less when a girl is born?”

She said no and walked away.

It has been nearly forty years since. But even today, you see some boy pulling the dupatta of a girl, resulting in her taking a fatal fall. Some idiot throws acid on the face of a girl. Or someone rapes and kills a female. Society must change its attitude and find a solution to all these heinous activities.

My suggestion are

1. Every boy attaining the age of eleven should be made to spend at least one night next to a                 labour room and hear the screams of females during childbirth. Maybe it will reduce the crime             against women by half.

2. NO  Labour Room  should be sound proof.