damn those columnists!

A huge number of articles were printed following the recent rape and murder of another BPO worker in Pune. One of the leading newspapers in India boasted of another such article which I came across, which blamed victim for her own condition! This columnist claimed that ‘these young girls throw caution to the winds’. His case, she agreed to get into the bus without her male coworkers, her big mistake, to be remunerated for with her life. The driver of course, isn’t to be blamed for if his victim is kissing/hugging her male counterpart in the parking lot; which he most obviously assumed as his right to partake! My case-- just about a week back, two girls around 20 of age were walking back from the very famous Inorbit Mall, Mumbai, at around 11pm; when suddenly a biker, blind-drunk, stops near them and tries to grab the one of them, cat calling very loudly; loud enough to stop a car or two. There were many people on the road, everyone looked on, did the absolute nothing to alter the scene; excellent audience, I’d say. Now, how safe, I ask, would this BPO chick be even if her male coworkers were in the bus that day, any guarantee she’d be alive today?
I haven’t the slightest idea how any newspaper can print such utter non-sense. Don’t they realize that they are almost sympathizing with these rapists and murders and promoting crime against women? Is this the price to pay if a woman is capable of earning a livelihood for herself? Does this columnist mean that women should be home back by 7 whereas men can dog the city whenever and however they would please? Why should women be subject to this curfew if men aren’t! I am sure this BPO worker’s male counterpart reached home safely and had a good night’s sleep. Why then, should women be a victim to the narrow outlook of such men? Even if this particular driver was drunk (which he shouldn’t be on duty, by the way); why should he feel comfortable coveting this delicious pie, as the columnist put it. Is he inwardly applausing this killer driver to teach this girl a good lesson for being independent and alive?!?!
It’s the age old tradition of looking upon women as objects of possession. If yours, keep her safe and secured and in picture-perfect condition; if not, get her to be yours! Probably this is one of the reasons people think reopening dance-bars would reduce crime against women, it’s pathetic! With the million changes happening in ‘modern’ India, this much needed change of looking at women as more than just objects of pleasure and as equals fails to manifest itself. If this is the condition in metro-cities, I wonder, what it would be in the more rural regions.