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Crime never goes on leave
Sushil Bhan examines the role of the police and the public as crimes against women rise
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Illustration: Tanmaya Tyagi |
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A 17-YEAR-OLD girl from class 10th was raped last week in Noida but there is little outrage about the incident. Her crime was that she agreed to drink Vodka with a bunch of boys. The gutless silence of our society over this incident makes each one of us sick to gills. For the police to allege that the girl in question had in some manner called it upon herself is unforgivable and horrendously insensitive. This cop must be given exemplary dress-down for the remarks.
Political leaderships must not protect incompetent bureaucracy and for crimes such as rape they must themselves accept the share of the blame. The role of the legislators and councillors requires immediate responsibility of the inhabitants of their constituencies. If these leaders are themselves useless, God save India. There is a need for good people to step up and work for the upliftment of citizen constituents.
Police remains busy in intercepting normal citizens for a bit of extortion. It seems to be least interested in preventing crimes. They know everything. Every street vendor who cozies up a slot on public land pays salutation to the beat constable. We don’t need the CBI to tell us this. Every extra brick laid over every shanty has a cop spring up to it almost magically. Gestapo, you cannot breathe in India without the cop coming to know of it. Every shopkeeper is greeted by them daily, every tree-shade mechanic remains on their daily meet and greet. Now unless Pakistan is pumping these saboteurs to execute hit and run’s against hapless women, the criminals of Noida are in all likelihood known to the cops on the beat. And yet when this poor girl gets whisked away by four local goons and raped, the cops have the audacity to call it a punishment for her own poor choices. This is inexcusable.
A girl must feel safe even if she strolls down an abandoned transport yard in the dead of night in two-piece swim wear. If police has difficulty in giving an unwarranted guarantee about her security, people don’t need them. Police is paid to prevent crime, if it cannot then they must be replaced with smarter ones who can.
It is a shame that in a country with 50 crore poorest of poor who go hungry each day, the cop should be a completely useless character and still have a job with perks for life. Noida is practically Delhi. Can you even imagine what crimes against women get committed and swept under the carpet away from the media that guards India’s capital. The government will have to give police jobs to people, who possess the intelligence and reformist zeal to carry out these crucial duties. With two crore governmental employees, India is becoming a different have and have-not deal. Is the two crore strong government working for people or are a 118 crore civil society slaves toiling to keep the government in business. A strange wasteful caste system has got created and this cannot be tolerated by a democratic nation.
Strategic policing starts with the chief of police stating that all citizens within his precinct are 24x7 safe. He must implore citizens to come out at anytime during the night or day without any apprehensions. He must demonstrate through bold action that in his beat crime has nowhere to hide. We are a democracy for crying out loud, free people without guns with a clear set of requirements of our police force. With the number of private security guards outside our houses, how much simpler can the job of police get. Clearly there is little the police need to do and yet they fail us. The gem of advise from the police for girls is not to leave home after dark, not to talk to strangers, not to expose and not to be promiscuous. Stay away from alcohol and places where alcohol is consumed. Hey wise ones, why women take birth at all if they are to live inanimate lives. To stoke fires, to cook and produce children, does this not sound utterly idiotic.
Amar Jawan Jyoti is incomplete without a permanent icon to women’s freedom. Parents must be giving their violated child hell on top of the heinous rape the poor kid has undergone. The nation salutes the courage the kid displayed by reporting this crime and at least now the authorities should pledge that her perpetrators will be castigated in full public view. It is deplorable that while each of us has women in their own families, how little we care for their freedom as a society. To keep the nation focussed on the sacrifices of this girl child, the government must decorate rape victims during republic day ceremonies. The nation must always remember its duty to women.
PEOPLE ACTION groups are very important to ensure that society can be strategically protected against women crime. This does not mean that people must watch others. People must act to get proper street lighting up. They should act to get safe transport in place. They should promote the cause of women rights to move about freely. Ironically , there are a lot of cases where single young women are not given places on rent. You know the old Indian precaution of keeping fire and hay separated. This has to change Women must have the freedom to work freely. They must get education, be employed, do businesses, drive out and in for work. They should be allowed to interact with strangers if they want any time of night and day. Our society must raise the standards for the freedom for women. This must happen across the nation, in every town, village and city. The home minister should make a bold statement calling all women to freely come out and simultaneously threaten all criminals to dare not step out. This will make heads of police step up to the standard of security they should be providing. Right now, who cares?
Police might be a state subject but crime is universally painful. Although largely god-fearing, our India brims over with crimes against women, children and the defenceless old. There is enough pain and suffering that citizens have undergone to warrant infusion of high standards of strategic management in policing. All police stations need to put out a precinct-wise citizen-police joint weekly progress report to reassure citizens that the police is not sleeping. This moderate expense can be sponsored at a local level so that it can be done starting today and without having to wait for an act of parliament. This will keep cops and citizenry accountable and interfaced in strategically avoiding situations where serious criminality tends to fester. If there is illegitimate hooch being sold in a piece of derelict land, a citizen-police weekly interaction would be able to highlight and handle it. The 21st century policing needs to be driven by smart do-gooders. An army that protects freedom and one that makes women feel outstandingly secure.
Sushil Bhan, a strategy and technical operations veteran of 25 years, is an FW Oped columnist.
captbhan@yahoo.com
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