By now, I am assuming that nobody will dispute that the national capital Delhi is seriously unsafe for women. But I never quite realized the intensity of the situation until a recent incident that occured too close to my house for comfort. The event occured two buildings away from our house and this is how the incident unfolded.
My friend's mom lives in a sprawling bungalow in a very posh area of Delhi. Once her kids grew up and flew to Canada and Australia, she rented out the first floor of her house to a few young women who had moved in from Kolkata. All seemed to be going fine for a while. My friend's mom was secure in the fact that there were no strange (in every sense of the word) men wandering around near the premises. The girls were happy about living with a non-interfering landlord who had a dog prowling the grounds and a security guard stationed outside the gate, which in any case was securely locked at all times.
But a week ago, my friend's mom woke up to loud screams emanating from the first floor. She roused her sister and domestic help--thinking there would be safety in numbers--and they rushed up to the first floor. Utter confusion raged. Two men had broken in and had chased one of the terrified girls out to the terrace. One of them had gotten hold of one of the girls by the arm and was trying to drag her into a room. She was screaming for her life.
The moment they saw more people come through the door, the intruders abandoned their plans, made for the spiral staircase on the side of the terrace and ran down. By the time their pursers caught up with them, they were long gone. The security guards on the outside road swore that no one had run past them, that left just one possibility. The intruders had climbed over the boundary wall of one of the adjoining bungalows. By then, my friend's mom had a pretty good idea of who these men were. They worked in the next bungalow as butlers. She asked the girls who had been attacked to identify them. Yes, they said, they would be able to pick them out with no difficulty at all.
So, my friend's mom and her sister set off the next morning to file a complaint at the local police station. They were told to go home and wait and the police would come and investigate. One day came and went. Then another day passed. Finally, the cops arrived and asked to see the girls who had been attacked. They asked them if they could recognize their attackers. Yes, said the girls, in fact they had seen them in the neighbourhood even after the incident.
Okay, said the cops, don't worry. We will pick up these guys and teach them a lesson. And we can guarantee you that they will not bother you again. But, they asked the girls in tones of faux concern, did they really want to file a case? Did they even understand what it entailed? They would have to go to jail to identify these men. They would have to attend court hearings to give evidence. And God knows how long the case could drag on. It could be years and years. Did they really want to enter this "jhamela"?
What do you think these traumatized, terrified victims did? Yes, you're right. They listened to the cops sketching out this nightmarish scenario with sinking hearts and decided not to file a case. So, these miscreants got off scot-free. Now, what do you suppose will happen next? Will these men be chastened after the beatings that will undoubtedly be delivered at the police station? Will they decide to give up on criminality and turn into model citizens? Will they now treat women as equals with respect rather than as potential rape victims?
Somehow, I don't think so. Instead, they are going to become more bold, secure in the belief that no matter what the provocation, the consequence will never be more than a thorough beating--and that's only if they were ever caught and identified. The next time they go trawling for victims, they will choose some vulnerable girl who is not so well-protected and inflict much worse damage on her. And the odds are that they will get away with it yet again.
The recent Dhaula Kuan rape of a BPO employee is a classic case in point. All the mean who have been arrested are petty criminals who have been breaking the laws for years with impunity. And after starting out with minor offences like stealing cattle they have escalated to the point where they turned rapists. That is why I think there is a lesson to be learnt from what happened one night in my friend's mom's house. Allow these miscreants to get away once and they will offend again and again. And every new crime will be more serious than the one that went before.
Perhaps, it is time the Delhi Police paid attention to the "Broken Window" policy that was adopted by the New York Police many decades ago. According to this theory, you can't even ignore something as minor as a broken window. You must repair it and crack down on the vandals who break it. You need to make it clear that no matter how petty a crime, it will lead to punishment. That is the only way to deter people from breaking the law.
If only that same lesson was reinforced in our own Indian cities, we would all breathe a little easier.
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