Nirbhaya: Must We Rejoice Now?

The streets of the national capital, on the cruel, dark night of December 16, 2012, must have wept from shame and terror upon witnessing the dreadful incident that seared India’s soul and left us trembling. 

A 23-year-old woman, fell prey to a vicious assault by six barbaric, sadistic monsters, including a juvenile. She was brutally dragged and gang-raped repeatedly. When she resisted and tried to fight back, an iron rod was inserted into her genitalia, mangling her intestines and ripping her sheer soul apart.

She must have screamed her lungs out. She must have cried for help. She must have gone through excruciating pain. She must have begged her perpetrators to let her go, but to no avail. 

Her voice had been muffled and her spirit had been crushed, like that of 24,923 other women in the same year. 

That night, humanity was raped again! 

The incident ignited widespread outrage in the country. Millions of people took to the streets, demonstrating against the growing rape incidences, and their slow and ineffective prosecution. With everyone talking about ‘women’s rights’ and ‘justice’, a revolution felt inevitable. Never before was such widespread public outrage visible over the sexual assault and killing of a woman.

Was this the same place where a woman is afraid to get on a public bus or the metro at rush hour because she would inevitably feel a man’s hands on her body or would have to neglect the shameless stares - making her feel like an object, as if she could be overpowered at any moment? 

Was this the same place where violence against women - in the form of rapes, dowry deaths, trafficking, emotional abuse, harassment - occurs out of the public eye and is supposed to remain that way?

Was this the same place where the victim herself is blamed for her rape?

And the question that matters the most is: Was this the case we needed to wake up from our long sleep of insouciance and ignorance?

In a country where a rape is reported every 15 minutes, even the most gruesome cases are often forgotten - except by the victims and their families who keep fighting their battles alone. 

We forgot the 25-year-old Aruna Shanbaug who was strangled with metal chains and was left to die. Who for the next 39 years of her life lied in a hospital bed in a vegetative state, unable to perform even the most basic of tasks.

We forgot the 14-year-old Sonam who was raped and killed inside a police station. 

We forgot the 32-year-old Manorama whose mutilated body was found by the roadside, her pelvis riddled with dozens of bullets.

We forgot them all. 

And as evident as it was, we forgot 'Nirbhaya' too. The spark was short-lived. We had forgotten Jyoti Singh, until recently, when on March 20, the torturous 7-year-long legal battle came to an end. 

Although a fit case for fast-tracking, it still took four-and-a-half years for all the three courts of the country i.e., the trial court, the High Court and the Supreme Court, to hear and pass their verdicts in the case. 

The juvenile, who is now an adult, was freed after spending three years in a reformatory and given ₹3000 and a sewing machine by the State government. One of the accused committed suicide in jail; and the Supreme Court convicted and sentenced the other four to death on May 5, 2017. 
For over two-and-a-half years, convicts Mukesh, Pawan, Vinay and Akshay exploited and exhausted the law to delay the hanging. Was there a way to wrap the case quickly?

The Supreme Court had about 40 hearings for over a year and a month. Legal experts feel daily hearing like it did with the Ayodhya case, would have wrapped up the case quickly. “It was not a civil case like Ayodhya. But still, it could have been expedited in four months with daily hearing,” says Nishant Srivastava, a lawyer in Delhi’s Saket court. 

Then why wasn’t it? 
Aren’t the judicial and political system of the country supposed to be the great flag bearers to ensure the safety of women, the safety of each one of us, yours and mine alike?

Time and again, India’s Criminal Justice System has failed the victims of sexual violence. 

If the infamous Nirbhaya case that was processed in a fast-track court could take so long then what is the guarantee that a case filed in the remote areas of the country that fails to get any traction will ever reach the corridors of justice?

Advocate AP Singh pleaded the bench to show compassion in view of their socio-economic background and clean record before the incident. How does their previous record matter? As a woman, I am forced to question the sanity of the plea. Would Advocate AP Singh have pleaded the same had the victim been his own daughter? 

Sentenced to death on May 5, 2017, the convicts pleaded that capital punishment violated their basic human rights for over 2 years! What human rights were these inhuman beasts talking about? What about Jyoti Singh’s basic human rights they violated so violently?

The questions persist. 

What happened after December 12, 2016?

Except for using names like “Nirbhaya”, “India’s Daughter”, “Amanat” in order to diminish our own guilt, what did we do? 
Even after 70 years of independence, we, the women of this nation, have to generate support to receive the justice that should be delivered to us without the ending chain of blame, questions and delays.

What did the government do to ensure that no woman ever goes through the same terror?

Did the “rape culture” that is so prevalent in our country fade? 

If anything it became more brutal, the Kathua, Unnao and Hyderbad rape cases along with thousands that keep on adding to the list every year.

Do you think every rape victim would display the kind of willpower as the Unnao survivor, threatening to set herself ablaze in front of the CM’s house, when most of them are even afraid to register an FIR?

In Hyderabad, after the encounter killing, people hailed the police. Why?

Because our system failed us long ago. 

Why can't there be a rational end to this course? We are all looking for answers in the dark.

At 5:30 am on March 20, when the country rejoiced amidst the COVID lockdown, with people chanting, “Justice has been delivered”, we ask you, “Was this the only justice she deserved?”