Sir,

Every time when you go through a newspaper or shuffle through news channels, you will find one or two barbaric rape incidents flashing on screen. The story of victim living traumatized and the perpetrator living unaffected.

The recent rape incidents in Bihar includes Motihari dragged and rape incident of a 21-year-old woman, the rape of a minor girl by Bihar lawmaker Raj Ballabh Yadav, and then a 12 year old girl from Pipra who was allegedly raped by two persons. Everyday three rape incidents take place in Bihar, a survey done by TOI declared. And in most of the cases, the accused is somehow related to the victim and its family.

The unstoppable rape incidents makes me question the safety of girls in the city- The safety of girls in Patna. The lewd remarks from a ruffian or the disturbing gaze from someone of your father’s age or a stalker who thinks it his birth right to follow a woman is all very common. The girls are just mansplained to go through the daily grind and to choose silence over protest. But the question stands still unanswered, until when?

In a recent incident, I confronted a guy who used to follow me religiously from my college gate to the mouth of the lane where I used to reside. After mustering up some courage, I registered my disgust and complain to the constable handling traffic. But what was to come was even more abominable, the constable simply asked me to ignore and when I insisted, he just hooted the guy off, like you hoot a crow off your roof.

This response coming from a constable was a rude shock to me and this makes me question the initiative Government is taking to ensure the safety of girls. All such stories starts from a disturbing gaze and later on geminates into heinous crimes.The Government needs to concentrate more on security than on granting justice. With an effective implementation of rules and strong security , the Government should try not to let the situation come where a girl needs to walk to court seeking justice and President’s permission for mercy killing.

Yours Truly,

Maimuna Shafique

3rd year Communicative English with Media studies, Patna Women’s College

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