No space for ifs and buts in crimes against women

This picture has been used for representational purpose

Even as the Mysuru gang-rape case, where a young woman was gang-raped and her male friend beaten up, has shocked the nation, we need to pay close attention to statements and questions from all around and see if they contribute and perpetuate certain stereotypes, even if inadvertently.

We want to hear statements like what was this couple doing in a desolate area to be stopped forever. This is what rights organisations mean when they say that we should not put riders and caveats in our criticism of such crimes, even if we are shocked and horrified. They have to be slammed categorically.

When women's rights outfits talk about public spaces being opened to women, this is what they mean - that women have as much right or are as entitled as men to public spaces, which they can access safely and securely. Certain spaces, like public roads, become inaccessible by definition as they are desolate or poorly lit. While one may be unable to put crowds there, you can have good lighting and a minimal police patrol.

Mindsets have to change, where questions like what were you doing on that lonely road to a woman, become totally specious. So, it is with timings. There simply cannot be a timeline by which these crimes against women are judged as what was so and so doing out so late, or that this is not the time to be out. This too is tied in with access to public spaces.

Stop the conjecture and chatter about who was the friend and why a male friend or whatever and let us change the narrative. Outrage, horror and shock must now coalesce into action and swift arrest of accused and continued efforts by all agencies to change the atmosphere of violence against women in the country.