A Night of Horror....

I was reading through a news-piece in TOI(The Time of India) today and it talked about how rapists are treated in jails in Ahemdabad. It talked about how people serving for murder are treated with sheer respect but rapists are given a SPECIAL treatment. Their ordeal starts from the moment they enter jail-compounds at the hands of the jail-staff first and later they are beaten up by the gangs in the jail and left to rot. Some of them who have committed crimes with minors are turned to the homosexuals in the jail for their interests. I am not sure if the report was targetted towards sympathy for the rapists or for a fear of punishment at the hands of not only the law but the co-prisoners. My question to the reporter is : Does he knw the trauma a victim goes thru when she is subjected to not only physical but mental torture when she is raped and her real trauma begins after the law takes its course and the news is out. With media peeping through the windows, trying to get the dark side of the victim out, it becomes more tough for a victim to come out of the shell and approach the path of law.Surprisingly they concentrate more on the character that she was, what she wore and how many guy frenz she had and did she drink? Ah! Gimme a break guys! Its no TV reality show. Soon the moral police is out with statements like , Gals shud wear this and that, my question to them is, do they know that maximum number of rapes involve a victim who is covered from top-bottom in traditional Indian wear. The statistics for Delhi says , 85% of the victims were dressed in Indian attire.And how about the infants and kids below 2 yrs of age, are they also trying to attract attention of men?I wonder what does the moral police have to say about it. The other day me and Bhai were discussing such a case and we concluded that such people need medical help as they are sick minds. Its not that we are the first people to think so, the great expert Psychiatrists have given similar verdicts on the psychology of such criminals. There have been debates about capital punishment being given to the culprits, women judges being assigned the cases, in-camera trials, fast-track courts etc but none has materialised to the extent of extending a practical help to the victims. There are many unanswered questions and ironically, when I am about to finish this post, a new bill has been passed by the cabinet as per which the victim will be given a fair trial at her place only(she will not even have to go to the court).The union cabinet's decision last week to bring in amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to help rape victims, including having women judges and conducting trial in the homes of the victims, may sound good on paper but it is not practically feasible, say legal experts.I am not sure how feasible it will be in practice but I am sure that the law is moving somewhere here.I hope someday India will be safer and better for everyone especially children and women. In past few weeks, reports of child abuse have haunted all newspapers in Delhi and they make me shiver in fear and shock and if that was not enough then I read about a woman who had to fight hard to get a report lodged in a Punjab police Station.No matter what day and date it is, if I decide on reading the papers,they are full of such news. Makes me feel really helpless at times. :( I have also encountered one such incident almost 3 years back, when I was working for DELL Technical Support in NOIDA. On my way back from office in my cab at around 8 pm, we were 3 people in the cab : A guy from my team, the cab driver and myself. We were on NH 24 and as we were nearing ghaziabad, the cab driver pushed the breaks so hard, it screeched. It was a female trying to stop the vehicle signalling with her hands and sooner she disappeared. The cabbie and an army guy from another car ran in her direction and as they told me they saw her pushing two men off the pavement in the middle of the road and collapsing there only.I was inside the car as advised by my team-member and the army guy.In a lapse of few moments I saw them carrying her to the car and we gave her water and asked her to take some deep breaths so she coudl tell us what exactly happened there. She told me how the bus driver deserted them on a lonely spot on the highway and she was walking to get a richshaw to get home and these two guys started following her. Her clothes were terribly torn. :( She said one of them grabbed her from the back and the other one kissed her forcefully and then they tried pushing her towards the densely-forested spot next to the highway tearing her clother apart and that too in the middle of the road that had good amount of traffic even 3 years back. Nobody stopped to her rescue and thank god we did. She kept on repeating one thing, " I am a software specialist, I work with CSC and how can this happen to me?". I dont remember how many times she said that. But she kept mumbling all through the way to her home.She was a petite and innocent person to look at and was in shock.I hugged her and told her it can happen to anyone and she is lucky she had someone to help her and she should feel blessed about it now. She did not even tell me the way to her house fearing something I really dont have a clue about. Finally I convinced her to lead me to her house so I can drop her, the poor thing stayed alone with her grandmother and thus was petrified if what would she say after seeing her in this condition. I can never forget that night, it is deeply carved in my mind. I could not sleep the whole night thinking what if it was me or someone I know for that matter. I told my parents and I know even they did not sleep. I still remember how she shuddered in my arms when I tried to calm her. I still remember the fear in her eyes. I never made an effort to get back to her and ask her as to how she is coz I dont want her to ever see me again or remember that incident. But Will she forget?? That night was a NIGHT OF HORROR and I have seen it so closely that I still wonder what if we did not stop for her, what if we coudl not save her? Wish people become more aware and helpful towards others so we can avoid such traumatic experiences for several women and children spread across India. P.S. It may not sound ironical enuff to spend time on it, but it will definitely make the readers think before they ignore a call for help.