Tag: women empowerment

It is has been always said that women constitute half of our population and the need to have stringer norms for protection of this half of our population has to be in place. Very true, I don’t think anyone would be having a different opinion. But I have a little deviation with what generally is said about the women safety and protection of her rights. Lion and order is a subject matter to which each of us is concerned deeply. With

the rise in the per capital income, change in lifestyle, reduction in ‘inactive’ hours of night due to call centers etc has actually changed the situation to a lot in comparison to what it used to be about two decades back. So, the nature of crime and the criminals has also varied with the times changing. While in the ancient times the things stolen could be the jewellery in most of the cases, now it could be a mobile or a gold chain. Now coming back to the point, since the women constitute half of the population, is it an intelligent thought to plan specifically for their security? No, certainly not. Instead we have to, and we are on the way, frame rules to punish the offenders in case of specific crime in a way that the rule itself works as a deterrent. Countries where the rules provide for ‘an eye for eye’ are not the one which has zero record of crime. So what more horrific can be more that ‘an eye for eye’? The point here for discussion is that why we are concentrating on the women security only? What about the other 50% of the population, i.e., the men? Most of the men are still not rapists and murderers, are doing white collar jobs and are busy in their professional world. Most of them are not even concerned of that the colleague with whom they are working for years is man or a woman. So why do we concentrate on women security alone? By doing this we are practicing under-utilisation of our resources. Instead of stressing the need for women security bowing to the pressure of political forces, we have to ensure that every citizen is equally and sufficiently protected. Men, doing good jobs are equally prone to most of the crimes. In fact, women given more power by acts, these men are more prone to being framed in a false case of rape or molestation. We are a civilised society and cannot keep changing our priorities. Security, no doubt is an important issues, but not of women alone.

We have to increase vigil around schools to protect children. We have to change our security culture by providing presence of near to equal police force on roads round the clock. This would enhance the security not only for women but for each and every citizen of this great country. Any need to increase the number of cops has to be supported by the budget. Ultimately it is people’s money for the people. The crimes specific to women: such as rape, molestation, domestic violence etc.,

need to be addressed by more systematic way of enquiry. With corruption residing deep into the roots of our system, most of the cases are presented weak in the courts due to lapses in the enquiry or non-submission of evidence before the court. Procedures should be more specific for providing these details. The enquiries should not be discretionary but on the basis of a vast questionnaire to be answered by the investigating officer. This, I believe would help in removing the anomalies of the legal system. However, a serious thought has to be given to the security of the other half population, the men, who are the prime source of bread and butter for the family, equally prone to crime in this fast expanding materialistic world.

We have to use our resources as a blanket cover for all and not specific for any particular section of the society.

Article by: Sanjay Chaturvedi