Horror Serial continues

(Published in the Millennium Post in the December 11 issue that can be visited using the following link http://www.millenniumpost.in/NewsContent.aspx?NID=88295 )

Yet another gruesome incident and yet another exposure of bundle of serious lapses by some government and a private agency but followed again by yet another series of avoidable attempts to score intellectual (read political) brownie points on this shameless incident. The media must avoid their temptation of (mis)using these horrifying incidents to settle scores with the “parental” mindset who starts advising the victim and also stay away from encouraging the overtly “unrealistic and confused” freedom activists who resort to defying even genuine concerns and expect the system to take care of the entire responsibility.

This incident does have a similarity with the last December's event in the sense that the victim in this case too had taken enough precautions normally expected from an aware working girl. The lapse in this case was clearly committed by the taxi service who had not observed the prescribed checks and the police who gave the serial offender a “character certificate” that eventually helped him in getting this job. While in the earlier incident the girl was with her male friend looking for a public transport, this time the victim had chosen a 'reputed' taxi service to get back her home. In both the cases the culprits were nabbed promptly by the police thanks to the media hype on the incident. It is also a fact that all the culprits of the last incident (except the one who took shelter under a serious flaw in our law) have been convicted by now.

Besides the ritual bashing of the government and the police after such incidents what goes missing generally is proposing innovative ideas, suggesting proper planning and enforcing their timely execution. Instead of beating drums and shouting slogans asking why the incident happened, it would serve our purpose in much better way if we suggest an effective strategy and ask these (ir)responsible agencies that why have they not been implementing these proposals in a time bound manner. Having more women in the police and creation of a section fully devoted to act on issues related to victimization of women are a few of such steps that should be put in place in a time bound manner. Provision for free mobile applications to raise alarm and alert patrolling are other valid expectations. And of course all these efforts will not have the desired effect if the rate of conviction does not improve and are not delivered fast. With all these in place, we can expect that similar crimes by 'unknown' criminals would be effectively controlled. Similar crimes however, by males who are 'known' to the victims can be tackled primarily through social activism and of course by educating everyone of us on 'moral values' for respecting a NO at any cost.