“Censorship”-the very word means the suppression of speech, public communication or other information which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups or institutions (source: Wikipedia). Apart from its etymological meaning censorship now a days is used while dealing with women and their do’s and dont’s in the society. Girls should not wear short skirts, nor use mobile phones, nor should stay out of home after 7pm- as these are the tools which provoke the hungry predators (read: men) to launch an assault on women. Many societies impose varieties of restrictions on women. We all are accustomed with the tragic incident that happened on the night of 16th December, 2012 in Delhi. The whole nation went berserk over the orgiastic sexual assault which caused the victim her life and India her daughter, candle light march was observed across nation, slogans were shouted against the heinous crime of rape. But sadly after that incident there was no lessening of the number of crimes on women. According to NCRB there was 50.86% of cognizable cases of rape registered from the states and 52.24% from the Union Territories in 2013.(Source: NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU: Incidence & Rate Of Crime Committed Against Women In States, UTs and Cities During 2013). This is an unfortunate figure for our country where women were awed and revered as mother or goddess. Yet after these cases, sadly, the society still remains insensitive to the women, blaming them for the assault on themselves in spite of punishing the real culprits. Even the septuagenarians are not spared. Recently in Kolkata a 71 year old Sister became the victim of gang rape. Still our society fails to learn and continues the blame game on women. The causes which our society jots down for the spurt in the number of sexual assault are
1. Provocative songs and dances shown on television
2. Girls wear “skimpy clothes” which arouses “the libido” of men, and thus rape
3. Easy access to mobile and internet which makes them “the target” of rape.
More so, the situation has aggravated as our self-proclaimed god men opined that considering the perpetrator as your brother would “lessen” the incident of rape. Lawyers making statement that women were never a part of Indian culture, policemen confessing he would have doused the women with fire if she stayed out of home so late at night, khap panchayats blaming fast foods, the under trial saying had the victim not shouted, she would not have died. Our society is allowing these sort of censorship which does nothing but shames the face of our country. In spite of dealing with the real issues, they remain busy with blurting out some utopian ideas. It’s a pathological state where women has to face a number of fatwa’s while the assaulters go scot-free. It is somehow linked with human psychology where we are habituated with putting the blame on the weak as we ourselves are too weak to face the real problem. It is indeed an anomic condition where gender sensitivity is still a distant dream. The society instead of uprooting the real causes imposes a stream of censored ideas on women. It is high time that we break the shackles of the stereotypical concept of women as the feeble, timid second sex, and point out the wrong doers and punish them, and most importantly spread awareness through education and other programs to make people sensitive towards gender equality from the grassroots level, thereby completely making the concept of rape an alien and utopian thought.
About the Author
I am a PG holder in Sociology, NET-JRF qualified,worked as a lecturer for two years. Love to read and have a flair for writing. Interested to work with organizations working for social betterment.
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